International Grandmaster Jozsef Pinter is now the leading theoretician in Hungary. He was Hungarian Champion in 1978 and 1979. He played three times in the Interzonal Final. In a game of him against Kasparov, even the then active world champion had to struggle hard to achieve the draw. He is the captain of the Hungarian Olympic Chess Team. The leading teacher of the Maroczy Chess school, he has educated a large number of young talents.
In this book, he deals with one of the most popular openings of today, the Semi-Tarrasch Defence. Within the framework of 64 games, he surveys the whole opening, examining some deviations very profoundly, spicing them with not only variations but also with textual explanations.
He is dealing at great length with the subject of 'isolated pawn', which plays an important part in this opening, quoting Dr Siegbert Tarrasch's words: "Whoever is afraid of playing with an isolated queen pawn should give up chess."
This is an essential handbook for all those who want to gain an insight into the mysteries of this very interesting opening.
FOREWORD
This book attempts to give a survey of the Improved Tarrasch Defence, not restricting the analysis to the initial stage of the game, but allowing insight into the mysteries of the middle and endgame, too.
The Improved Tarrasch Defence has been, and still is, one of my favourite openings. In the 70s, under the influence of Robert Fischer, we had closely studied the then very fashionable defence. Our joint analyses with grandmasters Ivan Farago and Peter Lukacs hold good even nowadays, though some of them have become outdated by now. In the book I used all literature I could find, as well as works published on the internet, naturally supplementing them with my own analyses.
Within the framework of 64 games I survey the whole opening, examining some deviations very profoundly, spicing them with not only variations but also with textual explanations. As for the less important ones, I deal with them only briefly, with few annotations. I sketch out the middle and end games arising after the opening in full games.
With the subject of 'isolated pawn', which is one of the most difficult problems of the strategy and tactics of chess, I am dealing at great length.
Dr Siegbert Tarrasch once said: "Whoever is afraid of playing with an isolated queen pawn should give up chess." Savielly Tartakower was of the opinion: "An isolated pawn spreads gloom across the whole board." Which of the two was correct?
Both, in my opinion! In many positions the IQP contributes to its possessor's launching a furious attack, in others it is the main cause of defeat. The fact is that in almost all World Championship matches, positions with isolated pawns have played an important role. Studying positions with isolated pawns intensively is not only great fun, but it also improves one's strategical understanding as well as one's ability to spot tactics. In short, it raises one's playing strength!
I examine the opening I'm dealing with from the point of view of both White and Black. This book therefore does not offer a panacea, a wonder variation, it does not promise a forced getting from the opening move to checkmate; no, instead it wishes to illustrate subtly and in a complex manner the plans, efforts and typical motifs of both White and Black.
Examining the transitions is also important, since the Improved Tarrasch Defence can also arise by transpositions from many other openings, such as Caro-Kann Defence, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Queen's Gambit Accepted, English Opening, Sicilian Defence, and some deviations of the Queen's Indian Defence. From this it follows that you can, at the same time, gain a better survey of various systems.
Jozsef Pinter
International Grandmaster
Content:
007 Foreword
009 (1) P. Keres - R. Fine
021 (2) L. Polugaevsky - M. Tal
029 (3) J. Lautier - J. Pinter
032 (4) B. Gulko - A. Yusupov
037 (5) T. Petrosian - V. Korchnoi
043 (6) J. Lautier - R. Kasimdzhanov
052 (7) O. Gschnitzer - Z. Ribli
055 (8) J. Pinter - A. Groszpeter
057 (9) E. Lundin - L. Pachman
075 (10) V. Kramnik - P. Van der Sterren
086 (11) L. Portisch - J. Pinter
089 (12) A. Yusupov - Z. Ribli
093 (13) B. Kelly - D. Lima
095 (14) W. Browne - J. Pinter
100 (15) P. Peev - J. Pinter
102 (16) L. Spassov - J. Pinter
104 (17) V. Kramnik - J. Lautier (Belgrade 1995)
109 (18) V. Kramnik - J. Lautier (Horgen 1995)
112 (19) V. Filippov - M. Krasenkov
116 (20) A. Kolev - J. Pinter
121 (21) G. Agzamov - M. Tal
139 (22) Z. Ribli - J. Pinter
143 (23) Bu Xiangzhi - J. Polgar
154 (24) I. Bilek - J. Flesch
160 (25) B. Larsen - S. Agdestein
167 (26) V. Korchnoi - Z. Sturua
171 (27) A. Groszpeter -I. Farago
174 (28) L. Psakhis - G. Agzamov
182 (29) A. Yusupov - V. Tukmakov
195 (30) V. Korchnoi - L. Portisch
205 (31) L. Polugaevsky - I. Radulov
209 (32) W. Schmidt - L. Portisch
217 (33) V. Korchnoi - R. Huebner
231 (34) V. Korchnoi - L. Brunner
240 Symbols used | 
