11 Moves You Must Know to Win in the Gruenfeld

Do you want to play something exciting and dynamic against 1.d4?

Do you want to pressure your opponent into making a blunder? Are you confident in your abilities to strike back at the center?

Then you should try playing the Gruenfeld Defense!

Here are the 11 moves you need to know to play the Classical Exchange Variation. This answer is for ChessKid Soumitra!

Move one! 1. d4  Nf6. You can immediately see that Black is waiting to push a pawn in the center. (This is still a great developing move!)

2. c4 g6

What looks like another waiting move actually prepares to aim at the center from the side. The bishop will fianchetto soon!

3.Nc3 d5:

Now is the time to strike in the center, before White is allowed to push e4!

 

4.cxd5 Nxd5 (The Exchange Variation)

Don't worry about 5.Nxd5 because when the queen recaptures she cannot be easily attacked. Here White has several choices. Today we'll look at 5. e4 Nxc3. When White recaptures, you fianchetto! (6. bxc3 Bg7)

Once you push the pawn on g6, you've created a weakness. That's why you should fianchetto soon after! White looks like s/he has complete control over the center. But Black is exerting tremendous pressure just with the one bishop developed to g7.

Do you see where that bishop is aiming if the pawns aren't in his way? Can we say "fianchetto" one more time, please? 

Move seven can be several different reasonable choices, but we will look at 7. Bc4 and ...0-0 today. After 8.Ne2 (not Nf3 when Black's light-squared bishop could soon pin it to the queen, which effectively removes it as one of the defenders of d4! You see that?! ) Black plays the important 8...c5!

This strikes at the center. Look how many times the square d4 is under attack! Three attackers and three defenders! Do you think White should play 9. dxc5? That would be a positional mistake -- the doubled, isolated pawns on the c-file certainly won't last very long. Plus, it's more dynamic to maintain that pressure!

After castles, 9...Nc6 makes sense to put more pressure on d4 and develop at the same time (that's called tempo)! White defends with 10.Be3 and your pin 10...Bg4 forces a concession of once of the castled pawns 11. f3. 

Finally, after the interesting move 11...Na5, White has some thinking to do! Should s/he try to simply save the bishop? (You will take on d4.)

Should White play the crazy-looking 12. Bxf7+? (You will take that, too.)

Got all that?

This leads to some very fun games. Try it out!

id you memorize all of those moves? We'll look at a few other variations and sample games next week.

Let BoundingOwl (Mrs. Jessica E. Prescott) know how it goes here.

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