A Lazy Counter To The Grunfeld

Introduction

The Grunfeld Defence arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5, and can be quite an annoying system for ambitious White players to meet, as Black gets very active piece play and pressure against White's centre. Even the world's best players have been unable to force a White advantage in this opening.

For this reason, I think it's not the most practical for the average player to learn tons of theory in this opening, only to end up with equality for all that hard work.

So I will be recommending a shortcut that has been played a lot by strong players in the last 10 years. It has a 50% win rate (and 54% score) in the Lichess Opening Explorer, partly because it stops Black playing his standard Grunfeld of attacking d4 with all his pieces.

The Exchange Variation

The main line of the Grunfeld is the Exchange Variation with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7. White has occupied the centre with pawns, but he struggles a bit to consolidate his centre, due to the undefended pawns on c3 and e4 offering tactical opportunities for Black. It is one thing to occupy the centre, and quite another to control it!

In this post, my 'lazy' recommendation against the Grunfeld is 7.Qa4+, with the idea of disrupting Black's standard plan of ...c5, ...Nc6, ...0-0, ...Bg4, ...Qa5 and ...Rfd8 in some order, focusing fire on the d4-pawn.

Here is a brief opening file to get you started playing this line as White:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/FHcz6o8N#13

Of course, I'll also share with you many model games of how to play against Black's different responses to the queen check. We'll start with the least serious options before moving to the more common tries.

Black Blocks His C-Pawn: 7...Nc6?!

There's not a whole lot to know about 7...Nc6 - Black is blocking his c-pawn, so we don't have to fear the ...c5 break and can develop normally for a pleasant advantage. Note that the ...e5 break is much less effective because we can reply d5, when the g7-bishop will be stuck behind the e5-pawn for a poor man's King's Indian:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/MNbgzIPj

Black Blocks His c8-Bishop: 7...Qd7!?

I was a bit surprised to see that 7...Qd7!? is only the fourth most popular reply on Lichess - while it may seem unnatural to block the c8-bishop, this does raise the question of how White should handle the attack on the queen, and it's also the top choice of the engine.

All of 8.Qxd7, 8.Bb5, 8.Qa3 and 8.Qb3 are playable for White, and you may experiment with several of these moves to find which one you like best, as well as to keep your opponents guessing. But since this is a 'lazy' repertoire, we'll stick with 8.Qb3, on the basis that it was the choice of one of the greatest all-time experts of the Grunfeld, World Championship finalist Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Here is his win with this variation, where he was able to develop normally while Black's early ...Qd7 meant he could not get in ...Bg4 in time to maximize the pressure on the d4-pawn:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/EKVQvdOn

My tip to Grunfeld players would be to explore 7...Qd7 more deeply, as after other moves White looks to be obtaining a small opening advantage.

Giving Qa4 For Free - Black Plays 7...c6

I am not impressed by the move 7...c6 for Black, as he can't hope to disintegrate White's centre without ...c5, but in the next game, White gets a normal Grunfeld position with the useful Qa4 for free, allowing him to play Rd1 in time to consolidate his centre and keep control over the position:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/O0CEaiCP

The Most Common On Lichess - Black Plays 7...Bd7

Although this is the most common move on Lichess, I've gone with it before 7...Nd7, as it's easier for White to counter and also a lot less popular among strong players, as after 8.Qa3, Black has a hard time getting in the ...c5 break.

Our first game, a nice upset win for White, shows how Black can't really hope for success with piece play alone in the Grunfeld:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/UMNP0eqZ

Our next game sees Black insisting on the ...c5 break with the preparatory 8...b6, but White is able to consolidate his d4-pawn with Nf3/Bg5/Rd1, while Black is too slow to attack the d4-pawn with ...Nc6 and ...Bg4 to equalize:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/j5BVtroB

Black Doesn't Pressure d4 - 7...Nd7 Introduction

Black's most common move by some margin among strong players is 7...Nd7, with the idea that, while Black doesn't have ...Nc6 after ...c5 anymore to attack the d4-pawn, he can still aim to disrupt White's setup with ...Nb6 or even ...Nf6.

After 8.Nf3 0-0, I used to play the old main line of 9.Be2 as White, which was recently used by GM Lei Tingjie to defeat GM Anna Muzychuk in a critical game the Women's Candidates:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/T7An3ZiK

This victory won Lei the whole match, and although it's still a decent move, I now prefer the prophylactic 9.Qa3!, so that ...Nb6 does not come with tempo.

One of the main ideas of Qa3 is that, instead of playing automatically with Be2 and 0-0, we can play in 'Alpha Zero' style and charge down the h-pawn with h4-h5 to create attacking chances on the kingside. This is also true when Black plays too passively, like in this correspondence game:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/3Eka2aQf

The Opening Bomb After 7...Nd7

The big question, therefore, is - what is the antidote to 7...Nd7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Qa3 c5?

Now it's time to unleash an 'opening bomb' that has scored a massive 63% win rate on Lichess, and a 3.5/5 score for White in the Masters database on Lichess.

That is the move 10.h4!, with the idea of h5 to weaken/attack Black's king. Black can't just stop it with ...h5, as then Bg5 becomes more effective (no ...h6).

In our first game, we see how the opening of the h-file distracts Black from his usual central counterplay:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/v3ER0nzR

In a game between two 2650+ GMs, Black recognized the long-term strategic danger of his position and radically sacrificed a pawn with 10...b5, but without getting sufficient compensation:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/fd76NUyZ

Our final game, also between two 2650+ GMs, saw Black take a level-headed approach and seek counterplay in the centre with 10...e5. However, after 11.Bg5 Qc7 12.d5, the passed d-pawn and opportunities to play on both flanks gave White an opening edge, that he later converted into victory:

https://lichess.org/study/Y9kCbSps/YsaEh2GC

In short, Black is struggling a bit in the 7...Nd7 variation - even though the computer keeps Black's disadvantage to a minimum, in practice he often struggles to find an effective plan.

Conclusion

As we can see, 7.Qa4 is quite a strategically tricky system against the Grunfeld, as all of Black's ways of blocking the check have disadvantages:

- 7...Nc6 stops Black being able to play ...c5 to challenge the d4-pawn;
- 7...Qd7 blocks in the c8-bishop, meaning Black's central counterplay with ...Bg4 is slower than usual;
- 7...c6 leaves Black an important tempo down on standard Grunfeld positions, as his pressure on d4 is now a move too slow;
- 7...Bd7 makes it hard for Black to get in ...c5 in a good version;
- 7...Nd7 looks healthy, but leaves Black struggling to get enough pressure on the d4-pawn, even after the ...c5 break.

This variation is not very theoretical and relies more on strategic understanding, as White's subsequent 5-10 moves after 7.Qa4 tend to be quite simple to play (except for the special cases we saw with the h4-h5 plan, which puts a lot of pressure on Black's position).

Of course, to play 1.d4 as White, it's not enough to have a system against the Grunfeld - you also need something against the King's Indian, which you'll face more often than the Grunfeld at the amateur level.

If you liked the style of this post (and you made it to here, so I'm pretty confident you did), you're going to love my new course 'Crushing The King's Indian With 5.h3', which is actually in a pretty similar strategic style to the 7.Qa4 Grunfeld in this article (only we're mostly playing closed positions, as you'd expect for the King's Indian).

Here's the link to 'Crushing The King's Indian With 5.h3', see you on the inside!