Where did I go wrong? Sicilian Grand Prix Attack

Someone please tell me what I missed and where my thought process went wrong

Guys some analysis please

Believe it or not the move e6 against the Grand Prix is a good move.

The Grand Prix Attack can lead to very nice flank attacks.

Blacks idea of dealing with that is counter attacking in the center.

In this game you did a positional approach of the line. Which is often done against these types of e6 d5 line's.

I believe your main issue is your queen side got locked down.

You created double pawns on the queen side. Which is the area you should focus on in this situation. You gave black double pawns than you never attacked them.

You created a weakness than never tryed to attack it?

You allowed black to lock down the queen side.

When the queen side got locked down black was in firm control.

He is in control because he has the counter play on the kingside which you do not have on the queenside. Which means you than became passive waiting for him to try and break through.

After 18.a5  black had a light square blockade.

You can't conqueror a file which is not open?

At move 18 I think a queen move would of been nice.

Maybe Qc2  with idea of playing Reb1

Than I would of tryed to play b5 not a5

You want that side to open up not be closed.

You open files for your rooks so they can become active.

Once the rooks are active you can beging targeting the weaknesses you have created.

I wrote a blog about this line before.

http://www.chess.com/blog/X_PLAYER_J_X/understanding-the-grand-prix-attack

Yeah I believe that is why you had problems in this game.

You had a nice idea but you didn't get your rooks active.

It hurt you in the long run.

around moves 10-12 you should play b3 (or maybe c4). This is much better than c3-Re1-d4, White gets serious play on the dark squares.

Hi there,

I've recently been researching a lot of theory on the Grand Prix as I'm adding it to my opening repertoire, and I think I can help.

The English Grandmaster Gawain Jones is one of the world's biggest proponents and experts on the Grand Prix - he has a book that might be worth reading depending on your level of interest.

Basically in the Sicilian Grand Prix, Black's idea is to play d5 at some point to disrupt White's position - in this case your opponent chose e6, Ne7, and d5. To help prevent this Gawain recommends putting the light-square bishop on c4 (putting pressure on d5) rather than b5. And if you do put the bishop on b5, trading it off for the black knight on c6 isn't necessarily a bad move, but it should probably only be done after a move like a6, when the issue is forced - your opponent played 5...e6, preparing for d5, and move 6 you took the c6 knight, which doesn't have anything to do with d5.

Instead of 5. Bb5 then 6. Bxc6, better would be 5. Bc4 e6, 6. 0-0 preparing for what Gawain calls one of the most important moves in the Grand Prix - Qe1. Because after 5. Bc4 e6, 6. 0-0 Ne7, 7. Qe1 then 7...d5 fails to 8.exd5 exd5 9. Nxd5 because the e7 knight is pinned to the king. By playing 5. Bb5 then 6. Bxc6 you actually added another pawn defender to the d5 square. Now Black's plan to play d5 is on.

And it's important to play Qe1 and not Re1. Re1 would pin the knight the same as the queen in the line I gave above, but it doesn't allow for what Gawain calls the main plan for the Grand Prix - a later Qh4 to start your attack. And you only need two more moves after 7. Qe1 before playing Qh4 to start your kingside attack, d3 (to develop the dark-square bishop) and then the move that Gawain considers by far and away the most critical and important move in the Grand Prix - f5. He even claims that even if you lose a pawn playing f5, you will still get an attack going with Qh4 and Bh6 (to exchange off the defender of Black's king on g7) and Ng5.

The objective of the Grand Prix is really a kingside attack - the early f4 gives you a space advantage in that area, and this is where you should focus. A general observation about your game - after the center became totally closed at move 13, I still think you had good chances by playing f5 at some point and getting your pieces to the kingside. At move 13 you have an enormous space advantage on the kingside, but instead you start looking at the queenside with b4 and a4, where you have no space whatsoever. There is something people refer to as IM Jeremy Silman's pawn-pointing theory. It states that once the center becomes locked, your pawns will point in the direction you're supposed to play - that's because that is the area of the board where you have a space advangtage. And the other side of the board is where your opponent will play, where they have a space advantage. It usually becomes a race, who can breakthough first - Silman recommends not making moves on your opponent's side of the board (unless of course to avoid disaster). Instead get your own attack going as soon as possible, on the side of the board toward which your locked pawns are pointing.

You spent a lot of the game making moves on the queenside where you had a space disadvantage. It's important to remember - the objective of the Grand Prix is really a kingside attack with f5 being the crucial move. To summarize, Gawain mantains that the main plan is Qe1, d3, f5, Qh4, Bh6, and Ng5.

I hoped this helped, I spent a lot of time researching the Grand Prix, and have had success with kingside attacks centered around Qe1 and f5.

Let me know if you have any thoughts!