Grünfeld DefenceD70 – D99
Black fianchettoes the king's bishop and then, instead of the King's Indian's …d6, plays …d5 and offers to trade the knight for White's c3-knight. What White gets is a full pawn centre on c3, d4 and e4; what Black gets is a bishop on g7 staring straight through it, a lever in …c5, and a queen's knight coming to c6 to add a third attacker. The whole opening is the argument about whether that centre is a strength or a target, and the answer is decided by tempo: Black must hit d4 before White finishes developing behind it, which is why the moves …c5, …Nc6, …Qa5 and …Bg4 come out in a hurry and in that order. When White declines the centre with Nf3, Bf4 or Qb3, Black takes on c4 or plays …c5 anyway and the game is about piece activity instead. What goes wrong is passivity: a Grünfeld player who forgets …c5 and settles for …e6 has a King's Indian without the king's-side attack, and White's space simply wins.
Played by
- Garry Kasparov — his defence of choice in the 1990 title match, and the opening that made 'Grünfeld' a fighting word
- Peter Svidler — the leading Grünfeld specialist of his generation, who played little else against 1.d4 for thirty years
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — carried it into the 2020s as one of the last top players to trust it in every game
Model game
Karpov – Kasparov, World Championship, Seville 1987
Next: d4
