Richter-Veresov Attack

The Richter-Veresov Attack, also called the Veresov Opening or the Richter Attack, arises after 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5. The knight on c3 blocks the c-pawn, so White gives up the usual c4 queenside play in favor of quick development and a central break with e4. The bishop on g5 eyes the f6-knight and threatens Bxf6 to spoil Black's pawn structure. The setup is sometimes likened to a Ruy Lopez reflected onto the queenside, though the resulting play has little in common with it.

White's standard plan is to castle queenside early and prepare e4, often with the help of f3. That plan gives the opening an attacking edge, and the play can become sharp. The most popular reply on Lichess is 3...e6, which supports d5 and accepts that the knight is now pinned against the queen. After 3...Bf5, Black stops e4 directly. Two named lines follow from there. The Richter Variation, 4. f3, aims for a broad pawn center. The Veresov Variation, 4. Bxf6, inflicts doubled pawns at once. 3...Nbd7 keeps the option of recapturing on f6 with a knight, and 4. Nf3 then leads to the Two Knights System. 3...Ne4, the Boyce Defense, hits the bishop immediately. 3...Nc6 is also common. The counterthrust 3...c5 can lead to the Malich Gambit, 4. Bxf6 gxf6 5. e4 dxe4 6. d5, in which White gives up the e-pawn to gain central space.

The engine prefers 3...h6, 3...Nbd7 and 3...c5 and judges the position roughly balanced. In online play White scores slightly better than Black, and decisive results are much more common than draws. The opening is uncommon at the highest level but has a steady following below it.

The opening was played as early as Marshall–Wolf, Monte Carlo 1902. Savielly Tartakower adopted it regularly from the 1920s, generally steering toward closed, slow positions. Kurt Richter treated it more aggressively in the 1930s. Gavriil Veresov developed its theory greatly from the Second World War through the 1960s, often using it to prepare a central advance or a direct attack on the king. Spassky, Tal, Smyslov, Larsen and Bronstein used it occasionally, and Karpov won with it against Romanishin. More regular exponents have included Rossetto, Alburt, Ciocaltea, Padevsky, Miles and, in recent decades, Jonny Hector.