The Grob's Attack, and Why We Don't Play it More???

Your opponent played some terrible mistakes like e6 and a6.

i liked how the kibitzers were standing around the hou yifan game in gibraltar as if they were staring at a car accident 

Well, I just finished reading the book Kings Gambit by Paul Hoffman (it's a great book), and inside of it, Paul talks about the Grob. The reason is that you have a few chances to attack but inside professional games, people have too much time to think, allowing them to avoid the traps (the grob is useful because people are under time pressure to move fast and by instinct). But once the opponent efficiently defends, your basically dead due to the sacrifices.

Well, I just finished reading the book Kings Gambit by Paul Hoffman (it's a great book), and inside of it, Paul talks about the Grob. The reason is that you have a few chances to attack but inside professional games, people have too much time to think, allowing them to avoid the traps (the grob is useful because people are under time pressure to move fast and by instinct). But once the opponent efficiently defends, your basically dead due to the sacrifices.

Here's a game I've gotten to a time or two...  Often his Queen WILL move to protect the g7 pawn.    https://www.chess.com/analysis-board-editor?diagram_id=4245592  

Hello everyone,

I wrote an article about Grob's Attack. It contains a comprehensive analysis and many interesting lines. You can find it over here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/is-grob-s-attack-refuted

Best regards,
Philippe

Interestingly, a C-rank player in one of my clubs has been throwing a Grob-variant at me where he plays 1. e3 followed by 2. g4, which has nearly all of the normal Grob trap lines without many of the vulnerabilities.  Easier to manage now that I know it's coming, but lots of folks (myself included) would normally play 1. ..e5 or 1. ..d5 against 1. e3, and that gets very sharp very fast.  Knowing what he has planned, it's easier to plan for, but it makes me wonder what an opponent would do in response to 1. e3, and how well I might fare if I followed with 2. g4.

  Think I would just play g6 after 1.e3  especially if knew opponent was planning 2.g4

A game played first table, first round, in a tournament i follow :

Seems easy for black...

1.e3 d5 (e5) 2.g4?

What's the big idea behind it? It looks as useless as possible.

I could find just one game between serious opponents on it. Even that one might have been a prearranged draw, as white is totally busted in the final position.

I recall when a NM tried to get a GM "out of his comfort zone" (I know, it's a stupid expression, but anyway...) by appying this "idea" with the Black pieces. The whole game is painful to watch.

1.g4... Analysis gives black an entire point after this move...

This is why we don't play the Grob...

any Kevin Bordi grob fanboys out there?

Kevin Bordi drew a game against Carlsen where he was outplayed in the opening.

1e3 h5 2Be2 Nf6 3f4 g6 4Nh3

sounds like "he won the lottery but only because he was lucky" (ya i know the grobs bad)

Be careful about the opening 1. b4  I recently faced it for the first time OTB and it was an easy win for me.  I would only play the Grob in 3-minute chess.  If you are playing a slow, rated game and you play the Grob, you might not be happy with the results.

Or else there is the national blitzstream master who plays this opening: https: //www.youtube.com/watch? V = YPoLfgWsUGw & vl = fr He beat Magnus with this G4 !!!

Il ne l'.a pas battu !