Dealing with the Grob

The title says it all. I'm having a lot of problems when my opponent plays 1.g4. Does anyone know a good line to deal with it?

Another safe way to deal with it, if for some reason you don't fancy the already mentioned e5/Ne7 systems - is to form a triangle of pawns facing the bishop... so 1...d5 2.Bg2 c6 and then if 3.h3 e6, possibly even followed by Bc5 unless White plays d4 - and pressure against f2. It is probably not the best way to handle Grob, but it does look fairly simple and appears solid.

Ah, what a stroll down memory lane. I'm quite certain I have Bloodgood's book packed away in a box with thousands of other pieces of chess literature. For some reason I recalled it to be a Chess Digest publication, however found it on Amazon and it WAS a Chess, Ltd publication (1974) that has been reprinted by Ishi Press (2010) complete with an introduction by none other than Sam Sloan himself. (As an aside, if anyone can share me the link to that endless drivel that Sloan used to post I'd be most grateful.) A new foreword by Michael Stewart includes a game by the "premier Grobster" Sam Sloan and future World Champion Anand played in 1989. (Don't worry, Anand won.)

So for twenty bucks and shipping you can have a physical reprint, or at least look at parts of it (including the new foreword and introductin) in preview at http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Grob-Claude-Bloodgood/dp/487187866X

Or for nothing more than having Chessbase or Chessbase Reader, you can have it for free from http://www.chessville.com/downloads/ebooks.htm#TacticalGrob Just scroll down a bit, it's under 'Opening Theory and Analysis' where you'll be linked to download a zipped CB files.

Happy reading...