Play Chess Openings: Grob Attack Delayed Spike 1.g4

Monday, February 20, 2017

Grob Attack Delayed Spike 1.g4

Jocelyn Bond of Canada wins a Grob Attack. 1.g4! is one of those Rare First Moves. About 20 years ago I played the 1.g4 Grob and 1...g5 Borg (Grob backward) many times. My most memorable experiences were the four games that I played against the infamous Claude Bloodgood. He was finishing out his life sentence in prison.

Here Jocelyn Bond played the White pieces. The game has a little Spike Attack (g4-g5) flavor. Usually, the Spike is 3.g5 in response to the threat of ...Bxg4. Black's solid move 1...e6 makes no attempt to attack or punish the g4 pawn. Jocelyn Bond wrote:

“Hi Tim, I just played a nice Grob opening game as white. Can you publish this? It’s blitz but I enjoyed so much to have played this game! Thanks a lot and come and play black against my Grob.”

grob_tueuse (1897) - nesalimar (1886), ChessCube Game www.chesscube.com, 13.02.2017 begins 1.g4 e6 2.Bg2 c5 3.c4 Qc7 [3...d5 4.Nc3!? d4 5.Ne4=] 4.d3 Nc6 5.Nf3 b6 6.Nc3 a6 7.g5 [7.Qd2!? h6 8.h4 Bb7 9.Kf1=] 7...Bb7 8.a3 Be7 [8...Ne5!=/+] 9.h4 g6 10.e4 [10.h5!+/-] 10...d6 [10...h6=] 11.Ne2 b5 12.cxb5 axb5 13.Be3 e5 [13...h6=] 14.Nc3 b4 15.Nd5 Qd8 16.axb4 Nxb4 17.Rxa8 Bxa8 18.Nxb4 cxb4 [Or 18...Qa5 19.Bd2 cxb4 20.Qb3+-] 19.Qa4+ Kf8 20.h5 Qb8 [20...gxh5 21.Rxh5+-] 21.hxg6 fxg6 22.Qd7 [22.Nd4 exd4 23.Bxd4 Bxg5 24.Bxh8+-] 22...Qd8 [22...Bb7 23.Bh3+-] 23.Qe6 Kg7 24.0-0 h5 [24...Bc6 25.Nxe5! dxe5 26.Qxe5+!+-] 25.Rc1 Bb7 26.Nh4 Qe8 27.Rc7 Ba6 28.Bh3 [28.Qxd6!+-] 28...Bxd3 29.f3 [Or 29.Qxd6!+-] 29...Qf7 30.Qd7 b3 31.Be6 Qf8 32.Rc8 Nf6 33.Rxf8 Nxd7

34.Rxh8 [Faster is 34.Rf7+ Kg8 35.Rxe7+ Kf8 36.Nxg6#] 34...Kxh8 35.Nxg6+ Kg7 36.Nxe7 Nf8 37.Bxb3 Nh7 38.Nf5+ Kf8 39.g6 Nf6 40.g7+ Ke8 41.Bg5 Ng8 42.Bxg8 Bxe4 43.fxe4 d5 44.Bxd5 h4 45.g8Q+ Kd7 46.Qe6+ Kc7 47.Qc6+ Kb8 48.Qb7# 1-0