Understanding the Grunfeld Defense

I wanted to start a topic about the very Master- common Grunfeld Defense which seems to score quite high for Black. I am Just learning this opening as I have played the Classical Declined Variation before. As a real life 1700 it is becoming much harder to beat opponents with the same opening over and over again. 

Thanks!

A Chess.com Premium Member

This is the Grunfeld Defense: d4 Nf6 c4 g6 Nc3 d5         Usually followed by cxd5 Nxd5 e4 Nxc3 bxc3

Please Comment on RECOMMENDATIONS and VARIATIONS in this line that are worth looking at. 

Fischer used to play this opening in games that were very important to him... against Botvinnik at the Varna Olympiad, and against Spassky in the Piatigorsky Cup, and again at Siegen.

Here is a list of Gruenfelds played by Fischer:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=19233&playercomp=black&opening=D70-D99&title=Robert%20James%20Fischer%20playing%20the%20Grunfeld%20as%20Black

Thank You

If you're playing it as black - it's all about the centre. You need to find plans that attack the centre, or the squares right next to, like in particular c4 at all (nearly) costs. If you can't put pressure on the centre as black and in particular keep the white d-pawn under control then you are in trouble. Don't forget that c7-c5 isn't the only way to attack the centre in the Grün, you can often also play e7-e5 followed by f7-f5 (pawn structure will be something like the below)

I've played something like like this against OTB 2100+ players with decent/good results.

I used an old book, Bent Larsens "Zoom 001" and played through all the games (almost) once. You'd prolly find it as a pgn or CB file somewhere. It's old theory (was written in the 70s) but you will get a feel for the kind of positions that ensue.

Thank you

Personally I prefer the King's Indian Defense Panno Variation, rather than the Gruenfeld.

... but I suppose we all have our personal favorites.

hifivepokemon, Hi Five!  The Grunfeld is awesome!

After your opponent enters the exchange variation 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 they might choose 7 Bc4.  Your next will likely be to hit the center with 7...c5.  Your goal is to pressure the d4 square with ...c5...Bg7...Nc6...and even your Queen on d8 hits d4. 

Unrelenting pressure on d4 should bring you rewards.  Happy Grunfelding.

favorite defence 

You should read Boris Arvukh's books on the Grunfeld... They're 2 volumes and are really good books with up-to-date theory. 

No offence indirect but that's a total waste of time

lol I know... Avrukh is so dated now. Kidding aside, surely your mean this in reference to the rating of the OP? I think his books would be a struggle for a class player, but I think he is a great author. Actually I think his books could be useful as a reference for an ambitious class player, especially if there is a coach to provide guidance.

I didn't even look at the guy's rating to be honest beyond the fact he said he's a 1700ish in real life which I took at face value. I WOULD completely agree with you on both the fact that a) Avrukh is a great author and b) that his books would be a decent reference tool, after all, it's cutting edge, but at 600+ pages long it would be a terrible waste of time and money as a starting point for learning the opening from scratch (not to mention terribly daunting!).

Yeah, I see your point. I rarely read opening manuals linearly, but flip back and forth as I get a better overview of the opening from several sources.

where they play nd2