UltimateTarrasch Defense

Here's the kind of opening you've got to love - invented and promoted by a lone pioneer, against all norms of "sound play" in his day. Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch believed in free and easy play for his pieces, in rapid development, and was unwilling to patiently defend the orthodox Queen's Gambit. Therefore, in answer to 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3, Tarrasch played 3...c5! to open the game immediately. No crouching on the first three ranks, no maneuvering to make a "liberating" advance late in the opening - each piece will be brought at once to it's best square, and Black will own the center! What could be better?

These benefits, however, come at a price: Black must accept an isolated d-pawn in the middle of the board. There it may be blockaded, attacked, perhaps even lost. But the "isolani" can equally become the springboard for a Black invasion, and drive wedge-like into the White formation. In a word, the Tarrasch Defense is dynamic - just the weapon needed by anyone aiming to win with the Black pieces.

The Tarrasch Defense has great practical value as well, a complete and self-contained system that can be reached on move three. There's no need to learn the vast theory behind the Queen's Gambit, or to worry about particular move orders. Indeed, Black can trot out his first 6 or 7 moves whether White begins 1.d4, 1.c4 or 1.Nf3 - the basic Black formation remains the same. And once a player understands the important "isolani" positions, he can easily take on any number of new openings that also feature that pawn structure. Therefore we have a versatile and powerful chess opening at our fingertips, which we can play with full confidence. Remember, two world champions (Spassky and Kasparov) relied on the Tarrasch Defense in their ascent to the throne! There is no magic formula to beat this opening, or even to gain an advantage against it - you can expect to win many games with the Tarrasch Defense.

Eric Schiller has done a remarkable job in presenting everything needed to play the Tarrasch successfully. An excellent theoretical overview, hundreds of deeply annotated games, the largest database ever assembled...it's all here! So take up this uncompromising Tarrasch Defense with confidence, and play 3...c5 against the Queen's Gambit whenever you can. And when you do, recall the words spoken by the good Doctor himself:

"Whoever is afraid of an isolated d-pawn should give up chess!"

Get complete coverage of the Tarrasch Defense like never before! This CD comes loaded with the following features:

* Giant database of 15,591 games - over 300 annotated!
* Six text documents to guide you through the opening
* Massive opening key (814 classification positions!) and theme keys
* Rare photos of Tarrasch, plus a special contribution by Raymond Keene
* HTML Opening Reports - only your browser needed!
* Over 50 audio clips in a separate multi-media Introduction database
* Full PGN & CTG files, plus a Bookup database
* Acrobat and Microsoft e-Books of Tarrasch theory
* And much, much more!