Grünfeld Defence

The Grünfeld Defence is part of the group of openings which arose only when a new understanding of the struggle for the centre was developed. In 1922 the Austrian grandmaster Ernst Grünfeld (1893–1962) introduced to practice this system which would later be taken up by Botvinnik, Fischer and Kasparov and which nowadays counts as one of the most important defences to 1.d4. In the diagram above, which shows the main line, Black has actually exchanged his d-pawn for the white b-pawn. And White has not only been able to set up the ideal centre e4/d4, but his d-pawn is even supported by the pawn on c3. The secret underlying the vitality of the black position can be found in the subsequent piece development and the counter-attack against the d4-square. Black only requires two moves, ...c5 and ...Nc6, in order to be able to exert strong pressure against the d4-pawn.