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Grob's Attack named after Swiss IM Henri Grob (1904-74).

White intends to put pressure along the h1-a8 diagonal while also threatening to launch a Kingside pawn storm.

The opening is considered inferior for White (-0.32 at this stage of analysis 29/06/2008), but it avoids endless theoretical discussions and cannot be avoided by Black. The positions are often highly tactical and natural play by Black may lead him into several traps.

Evaluation notes from Kjetil Prestesaeter:
I have added all known named lines plus other lines favored by Rybka (Rybka 2.3 mp 32-bit, 17ply). Many of the named lines seem to be more romantic than strong. Please extend the analysis if you have spare time and computer power.

Notes by Peter Marriott:

I used to use the Grob in many blitz games I have played against humans. I actually had good success, not because it is a good move, but because it confused many players. On a chess server, I actually achieved a rating from 16-1700 by playing it. Many, many players simply responded by ...d5 and after I played Bg2, they took the g4 pawn, which led me to win a whole bunch of games by playing 3.c4, with an eye on b7. Maybe the right way to play this for black is simply to play 1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 then c6. Then white wonders what he's gonna do (At least I did!)
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Contributors : Benjamin Aldag, Gary Gruwé, Kjetil Prestesaeter, Peter Marriott

[ECO "A00"] [Opening "Grob's attack"]

d5 : 259 games, White ELO av : 1788, Black ELO av : 1775
1-0 : 39.5% , 1/2-1/2 : 8.9% , 0-1 : 51.6%

e5 : 41 games, White ELO av : 1796, Black ELO av : 1656
1-0 : 48.8% , 1/2-1/2 : 9.8% , 0-1 : 41.5%

e6 : 7 games, White ELO av : 1841, Black ELO av : 1686
1-0 : 85.7% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 14.3%

h5 : 7 games, White ELO av : 1730, Black ELO av : 1623
1-0 : 28.6% , 1/2-1/2 : 14.3% , 0-1 : 57.1%

Nc6 : 6 games, White ELO av : 1704, Black ELO av : 1660
1-0 : 83.3% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 16.7%

c5 : 5 games, White ELO av : 1495, Black ELO av : 1510
1-0 : 80% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 20%

d6 : 5 games, White ELO av : 1675, Black ELO av : 1632
1-0 : 100% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 0%

g5 : 4 games, White ELO av : 1885, Black ELO av : 1772
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 50% , 0-1 : 0%

g6 : 4 games, White ELO av : 1645, Black ELO av : 1598
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%

Nf6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1778, Black ELO av : 1758
1-0 : 100% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 0%

c6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1879, Black ELO av : 1754
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%

b6 : 1 game, White ELO av : 1200, Black ELO av : 1094
1-0 : 0% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 100%

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