Grand Prix Attack
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I have never played the Grand Prix before, but I've heard that it is very low risk for white. But if black doesn't know what he is doing, he'll get blown off the board.
A game follows. The Grand Prix Attack was developed mainly by English players in the 80s. Originally it was dubbed the 'Cutty Sark' Attack due to their sponsorship of weekend Swiss tournaments in the late 70s, I believe. Hebden was one of the originators of some lines.
Thanks for the feedback hicetnunc, i played those ideas (.ie f5,Qh4 etc) in some blitz games alright, definatley annoying for Black.
To KillaBeez; i have played the Black side of this opening... and yes i have been blown off the board! hehe
Hey mxdplay4, thanks for providing the Hebden Game. Mark is one of my favourite GM`s. True gentleman off the board, but on the board, too tricky for me 
. hehe I will be looking at his games using this opening. I have a database of his games going back to the 80s so will start looking there aswell as my on my new big database 2008!
Just so i can make it a little clearer, how i am entering the Grand Prix Attack is the move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4. The line i am looking at is the Bb5 variation not Bc4. Black in this line plays Nd4 according to NCO but i was wondering what if Black doesnt move his Knight from c6. I read on the net (this morning) that Blacks idea is to trade the Bishop on b5 for the Black Knight on c6 to disrupt the black pawn structure and enter a positional type of game. Could somebody clarify this?? Any help would be great please.
From the bit that I know the trade is good for white. My coach likes this opening and insists that the key is to keep building kingside pressure while not giving balck any counterplay on the queenside. Lev Alburt has contributed a lot to this opening and goes into quite a bit of detail in it in his book on openings for white. I haven't dug too deep into it yet, but would recommend checking some of his stuff out.
greasyfingers wrote: From the bit that I know the trade is good for white. My coach likes this opening and insists that the key is to keep building kingside pressure while not giving balck any counterplay on the queenside. Lev Alburt has contributed a lot to this opening and goes into quite a bit of detail in it in his book on openings for white. I haven't dug too deep into it yet, but would recommend checking some of his stuff out.
yes i am learning the Grand Prix Attack from this book called ''Openings explained for White'' in the chapter 'how to meet the Sicilian'. I have been looking at GM Mark Hebdens games from the early 80s and wow, some cool positions. I have actually put learning this chapter on the long finger because i like the open sicilian so much but i think this could actually solve the problems of having to go through lots and lots of open sicilian variations and transpositions. When i picked up learning the Kings Gambit i used GM Hebdens games for reference and had great success with it, i should have known to take on this opening months ago!
Yes Greasyfingers, the exchange is definatley worthwhile for White, its seems the Knight on f3 can go to e5 to carry out the exchange of Bishop and Knight for Bishop and Knight on c6 and leave black with doubled c pawns. White can attack kingside with pawn storm and could also tackle the doubled c pawns kinda of like a Two Knights game or fianchetto the bishop on b2 or go to a3. hmmm... i underrated this opening until now i can see its strong points.
The only problem with the Lev Alburt book is it leaves out certain lines i think could be important. A side note;In the 'Openings explained for Black' the Tal Gambit Declined is also left out but i think that desereves a mention at least.
So, im starting to adopt this opening to play against the Sicilian. Does anybody here play it? What advice could you give?
I have tried some games, but with little success. I dont understand it i must admit. I am more interested in the open Sicilian games but want to have the Grand prix attack in my repitoire as white, could anyone share some tips or advice?! What are the key ideas in the opening and what lines are most popular etc.