Friday 16 August 2013

Farewell to the Grunfeld

Of late my results with the Grunfeld have been appalling, and what I am seeing elsewhere does not fill me with hope. The latest anti-Grunfeld line to become popular is a simple h4-h5 hack, as early as move 5. It has been played by Morozevich and Grischuk, and at this stage the results are running in Whites favour.
So my line of thinking is basically "If I let White hack me this early in an opening where I should by rights be attacking rather than defending, then what good is it?"
Here is the most recent example of the h4 line, played in the current FIDE World Cup. It is, of course, a win for white.


Vitiugov,Nikita (2719) - Ragger,Markus (2680) [D90]
FIDE World Cup 2013 Tromso NOR (2.2), 15.08.2013


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The main disadvantage of the Grunfeld for the amateur is that it requires a good understanding of a large number of chess openings! I'd recommend Rowson's 'Understanding the Grunfeld' which probably raised my Grunfeld 'understanding rating' 500 points!