How to Play Against the Trompowsky Attack

2.Bg5 skips past an entire branch of chess theory in a single move. Every King's Indian, Grünfeld, Nimzo-Indian, and Queen's Indian idea you might have prepared against 2.c4 is irrelevant here — White has pinned your knight before any of that theory becomes possible, aiming to double your pawns if the knight doesn't move, or to keep a strong bishop pointed at your kingside if it does. Deciding how to answer this pin is its own separate skill from anything else in your 1.d4 repertoire.

The most direct answer: striking the bishop with 2...Ne4

Rather than accepting the pin passively, 2...Ne4 attacks the bishop immediately, forcing a decision. White typically retreats with 3.Bf4 or 3.Bh4, and Black follows up with 3...c5 or 3...d5, striking the center before White's development gets ahead. This is the most popular, most tested reply for a reason: it takes the initiative back on move two rather than letting White's early pin dictate the rest of the opening.

The sharp try you need to be ready for: an early h4

Some White players meet 2...Ne4 with the aggressive 3.h4!?, offering to chase the knight further rather than simply retreating the bishop. It looks alarming, but Black has a clear central response: continue with ...d5 or ...c5, contesting the center rather than reacting move by move to White's kingside pawn advance. The pawn on h4 doesn't threaten anything concrete on its own; it's a long-term structural commitment, and Black's plan doesn't need to change just because White's does.

Accepting doubled pawns: the calmer alternative

Sidestepping the complications after 2...Ne4 entirely, playing 2...e6 or 2...d5 and simply allowing 3.Bxf6 accepts doubled pawns for a solid structure and the bishop pair — the same basic trade-off that appears in several Nimzo-Indian and Caro-Kann lines you may already understand. This is a genuinely lower-risk path: you're not fighting for the initiative on move two, but you're also not walking into any specific tactical complications, since the position develops along familiar structural lines rather than forcing sequences.

exf6 isn't automatically the right recapture

After 3.Bxf6, most Black players recapture exf6 out of habit, since it's the more natural-looking move and it strengthens the center along the a2-g8 diagonal. But gxf6 is a legitimate alternative that opens the g-file for a rook, adds a second central pawn on f6, and can support a later ...e5 break in a way the exf6 structure doesn't set up nearly as directly. Which recapture is right depends on what you actually want from the resulting middlegame, not on which one looks less committal at the moment you're forced to choose.

What the resulting middlegames actually look like

Whichever path you choose, expect a slower, more strategic middlegame than a typical King's Indian or Grünfeld — the Trompowsky doesn't lead to the same kind of forcing, theory-heavy positions those openings do. Piece activity and structural understanding tend to matter more than memorized sequences past the first four or five moves, which is part of why the opening has become a popular practical choice for White players who want to avoid deep Indian Defense theory without sacrificing real winning chances.

A third path: meeting the pin with an early ...d5

Instead of striking the bishop or preparing to accept the trade, some players simply play 2...d5, ignoring the pin for now and staking a central claim of their own. White can still play 3.Bxf6 exf6, reaching a structure similar to the doubled-pawn lines above, or maintain the pin with 3.Nd2 or 3.e3 and develop normally. This keeps your options genuinely open a move longer than either of the two more committal choices above, at the cost of not forcing White to make an immediate decision the way 2...Ne4 does.

The Nimzo-Indian Defense page covers a similar doubled-pawns-for-the-bishop-pair trade-off reached through a completely different move order.