What do you think about the Grunfeld Defense?

Be careful playing this position. It's too theoretical. The current final assessment of this line is a draw. Plenty of analysis given already by top GM's.

Well, Da-Novelty, technically all lines are a draw, but people screw up. I've seem my friend, who's almost 2000 USCF, get into an endgame in that position and win. His endgame looked quite comfortable actually.

Would people my rating see Bxf7+? I think majority of players my rating would move it away, I could be wrong though because I never was on the white side of this line. If they move the bishop away then black has a nice game.

They don't have to see anything. 429 games played with 12.Bxf7+, and 782 with 12.Bd3 (which is by far the most testing move).

So more people move the bishop away?

And databases dont help in live chess/ otb etc.

This is where the theory STARTS.

The variation has been heavily debated and analysed since the early seventies.

Expect established theory to end around move 35, or even later... then you can start playing chess, but I'd rather play something else (both colors involved), even in correspondence engines-on games.

Thanks a lot, in one of my opening books it says black plays Be6, and basically it stopped there, and I was confused as to why Be6. 

Do you honestly believe 1800s know the variation all the way to move 15? People deviate quickly around my rating.

I do not know what 1800's know about the variation, and I don't care to know either: The position is very sharp, one small mistake and Black is dead. I prefer playing less theoretical variations.

I suggest looking a bit at Peter Svidler's gambit line 10...b6!? (11.dc5 Qc7).

There is not much theory about it (yet!), and so far White has had trouble proving an advantage.

Thanks, I will take a look at it.

12. Bxf7+ would seem like a perfectly natural move to someone unfamiliar with Gruenfeld theory. Why not win pawn with tempo? The answer is that Black gets the nice c4 square as compensation, he is less likely to get mated, and White's extra pawn is doubled. Botvinnik and Estrin gave the response starting with ...Qd7 and ...Nc4 as comfortable for Black. And it usually is. 

But then Seirawan and Karpov started playing Bxf7, and their opponents either forgot about B&E's antidote (because theory had dismissed Bxf7, and no one had faced it in awhile ?) , or else they had found some hole in it. I'm not sure. Anyway, Kasparov tried Qd6 against Karpov, and got strangled, if IRC. He later came up with some refinements, but Black seemed to just hold the balance. Later, Ivanchuk came up with the counterintuitive ...e5! (after ...cxd4), which seems to give Black good chances for an advantage. He can pile up on the f-file quickly (after the inevitable trade of the rook on f1), his bishop can play on the f8-a3 or h6-c1 diagonals, the Knight can use c4 as a base of operations, and he has a healthy Queenside majority. 

That line I posted earlier on page 1 is something I saw while browsing the Avrukh book.

Also, btw in the Rb1 line here is a trap you should be aware of! Ive scored some nice easy wins in this trap.

Thanks for the line, I would be sure to watch out for that! What would be blacks best choice then, after Rb1?

e4 works but a lot of GM's prefer positional plays.

Yea I think your right.. I saw this line at Dortmund I believe..

I never noticed Caruana won the Dortmund Tournament by play the Grunfeld, here he is faced against Rb1!

In this Rb1 lien I remember looking at Bd2, sacrifising the a pawn, with compensation, but Bartel either forgot the theory or didnt want to sacrifise the pawn.

If it's too theoretical, that means.. I would probably be more prepared than my opponent, at this rating of course. In other words, I wanna throw my opponent off in the opening, or play the book continuation and end in a more complicated position, both sound great!

I see Najdorf getting played a lot at at my levels, and people usually know the lines, because it's the same thing over and over, as I play Grunfeld more I will get better with it.

People who are interested in the grunfeld please join my 10 player tournament! http://www.chess.com/tournament/the-grunfeld-defence

For Russian system, refer to Anish Giri's latest game. The Be6 line.

I have always liked it because it is à different opening. My comment is that sometimes the opening goes very fast in an end game, which you need to like

To me, the endgame is my strongest point, so I do not mind.