Currently I'm playing the Slav but I don't like passive defense.
What did / do Najdorf players like Fischer, Kasparov, Vachier-Lagrave play? King's Indian Defence and Grünfeld Indian defence.
@tpr I'm thinking about Grunfeld. I've heard you have to memorize a lot of forced continuations like in the Poisoned Pawn. Is that true? I've tried King's Indian. But I don't do well in positions where my opponent has a massive space advantage.
I'm Ruy LOpez/Schleimman defence player but i use Grünfeld against 1.d4.
#3 Yes, that is true. This is what Maxime Vachier-Lagrave says:
"At the time I started, the Gruenfeld was a very different opening than it is nowadays. These days there are lots of variations to memorize. In most lines, you need to know what you are doing. I keep the challenge on because now I know so much about it that I can afford to do so. But if I had to learn the opening from scratch now, I am not sure I would do it.
But this opening does give a lot of counterplay options and if your opponent wants to achieve something, he either can play a long forcing line hoping you don't remember it, with the risk of a quick draw without any chance, or he has to take some risks and allow counter-chances and a playable position. This is the good thing about Gruenfeld compared to say Queen’s Gambit where white can press for an advantage for free."
en.chessbase.com/post/mvl-i-was-very-motivated-to-get-back-to-winning-ways
"At the time I started, the Gruenfeld was a very different opening than it is nowadays. These days there are lots of variations to memorize. In most lines, you need to know what you are doing. I keep the challenge on because now I know so much about it that I can afford to do so. But if I had to learn the opening from scratch now, I am not sure I would do it.
But this opening does give a lot of counterplay options and if your opponent wants to achieve something, he either can play a long forcing line hoping you don't remember it, with the risk of a quick draw without any chance, or he has to take some risks and allow counter-chances and a playable position. This is the good thing about Gruenfeld compared to say Queen’s Gambit where white can press for an advantage for free."
en.chessbase.com/post/mvl-i-was-very-motivated-to-get-back-to-winning-ways
Is it any worse than the Najdorf in that respect? I'd always thought that that was the gold standard for highly theoretical openings, and the OP doesn't seem to be having an issue there...
Grunfeld it is then. Thanks everybody for the replies.
good
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