Why is the grunfeld defense so drawish?

I just don't get how it's so drawish in master play when there are multiple interesting (and at times, forcing) lines. Should I try out the Grunfeld myself?

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the present expert on the Grünfeld said he would not have started plaing it if he had known how complicated it is. So no, you should not try that and certainly not at your level.

1650 Elo. Its ridiculous to have such view. At our rating, statistics give at maximum 5% of draw.

@tpr

I searched in the lichess database,

Elo 1600 and 1800 (games played in lichess)
Grünfeld Opening.
Blitz : 80 K games, 50 % win for black 45% win for white.
Rapid : 23K games, 51 % win for black 42% win for white.
Classical: 13K games, 51 % win for black 42% win for white.

So for me, your advice to "not try" this opening is total nonsense.

EDIT : Opening played by MVL and Nepo, so totally sound.

#4
There are 3 kinds of lie: ordinary lies, blatant lies, and statistics...
Win rates correlate more with relative player strengths than with opening. So a high win rate indicates it is played by the higher rated players.
Of course it is totally sound, also Smyslov, Fischer, Kasparov played it.
It is however very difficult to play. White gets the center. Black must play very precisely and has almost no margin for error.

Agree, Grünfeld or Nimzo are the two ways to go for black against 1.d4. Try out both and look which one fits your style better.

I guess it has a "drawish" reputation because many of the long forcing lines have been theoretically shown to lead to endgames, which can be held to a draw with perfect play from both sides. But make no mistake, these endgames are still rich and far from trivial for any hobby player. From the little experience that I have on the white side of the Grunfeld, it often happens that black ends up winning a pawn if he knows the opening better, but then you often get some rook endgame a pawn down which can still be defended (in theory).

I actually think it's a good opening to learn if you want to improve. It is a lot of theory, but White players are probably not as well prepared for it either, because somehow people have the idea in their head that "only grandmasters play it anyway." ;)

What about the KID?

I played KID for a long time in my life and meanwhile i dont like blacks permanent weakness on d6 any more. Same true for the Benoni complex - Benko Gambit excluded, which is awesome. I dont allow it with white.

Funny to imply people lie or are too stupid to read statistics and then write "So a high win rate indicates it is played by the higher rated players.". It can or not be true lol. You could argue that around 1600-1800 elo, we don"t know how to effectively use space and a big center, making the Grunfeld a good opening at our elo range. And it is actually a very good set up vs the unfortunately very common London system.

Just don't listen to pseudo elitists who are not even that much better at chess than you, and try every opening you want to try and keep playing it while you're having fun with it.