More Ways to Win With the Gruenfeld

Howdy ChessKids! So you remember the moves in the Gruenfeld Exchange, right? Well today we're going to expand that opening by looking at a few variations. Here is how Black can win with the Gruenfeld. Let's start back in the day with former World Champion Vasily Smyslov.

Smyslov uses an interesting double fianchetto position, where the white bishop ultimately dominates the entire long diagonal. 

Bishop power! Black has just played the amazing move 40...h5! What is his threat?

If White plays 41.h4 Black can just take it with the bishop, still mate! Here is the full game. Watch how Smyslov offers to open the position with 16...f5. He is still working at breaking down White's strong center! When White concedes by pushing, Black's light-squared bishop becomes extremely powerful.
Here is a more modern game. This game took place between two Oskars in Iceland! One was rated 1599 and the other 1882. Guess who won?
Black would like to play Qe1 but White will be able to block with both rook and knight. How can you make a fearsome fork that will deflect the rook away from f1?
Yep! And Black opted for the double bishop fianchetto here, too. I feel like White pushed too hard with those pawns, and didn't have a real plan. A better idea would have been to keep the strong center, and try to use that extra space to get pieces to better squares. Getting the knight back into play, for example, rather than pushing and trading his bishop for a knight, would have helped White play a fine position.
And here are two world-class players, Anish Giri and MVL (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave), battling the Gruenfeld out in a blitz match last year. Instead of double bishops, MVL uses a battery of doubled rooks to help ensure his pawn will promote. Watch this great game!
The queens came off early, but Black just completely stifled White's play!
The Gruenfeld can be a very aggressive opening. If you like the give and take in chess, then you'll love when your opponent plays 1.d4!

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