Results of g4 (Grob) trial

Play the same oppenants with the grob again....

but this time, Ensure ALL OF THEM ARE USING OPENING BOOKS....

see if that changes anything.


IMHO, The only real power of the grob is its suprise, there are most certainly complex and highly tactical lines, but - it is not true white comes out better.

therefore, if you use opening books (and use them well) most of the "sting & poison" is somewhat negated.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
g4 is definately better than h4.

I have 2 books on it "The Killer Grob" by Basman and "The Tactical Grob" by Bloodgood.

I don't have any books on h4!

GMs have been beaten by g4 and I have personally beaten an IM OTB so it can't be all bad!

Allthough I no longer play the Grob, I have happy memories of winning a blitz tournament at The Chess Palace in Los Alamitos, California a few years ago playing only 1 g4 as White and only 1...g5 as Black. (BTW, I was seeded third in the six-player double round-robin.)

I discovered that if you play the Grob against the same players over and over they eventually figure out a good defense (e.g. 1...d5, 2...c6, 3...e5).

Originally posted by Shinidoki
Play the same oppenants with the grob again....

but this time, Ensure ALL OF THEM ARE USING OPENING BOOKS....

see if that changes anything.


IMHO, The only real power of the grob is its suprise, there are most certainly complex and highly tactical lines, but - it is not true white comes out better.

therefore, if you use opening books (and use them well) most of the "sting & poison" is somewhat negated.

I can divert them from the book easily.
... then it will be me and my Killer Grob against them again.
... victory will be sweet.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
I can divert them from the book easily.
... then it will be me and my Killer Grob against them again.
... victory will be sweet.

so, how about a grob against me? 🙂 have never played it before, but there's a first time for everything...

don't take this the wrong way, but just because YOU won a few games with it doesn't make g4 a good first move...

I can't believe you got away with it on correspondance too...

Originally posted by YUG0slav
don't take this the wrong way, but just because YOU won a few games with it doesn't make g4 a good first move...

I can't believe you got away with it on correspondance too...

Honestly, middlegame dominance is all that matters against who most of his opponents were.

really? I didnt check the games

Look at the killer kingside attack in Game 2269230, typical Grob violence!

Trouble is I can't find any wins for you against players rated over 1500. I guess I must have got bettrer since I stopped playing the Grob.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
are equally conclusive

P 10 W 9 D 1 L 0

Average opponents rating 300 points below mine so a 95% score is precisely what would be expected if I had played d4 or e4!

Therefore, I conclude that g4 is even better than h4 or a4 (which is a dreadful move) and just as good as d4 and h4.

As a Grobophile I’ve had pretty good luck with it. The one time I tried it in an old Chess Review Golden Knights postal tmt. against a 2000+ player (who I later found out was a province champion in Canada), I could have saved a lot of time by resigning at move 2. Sometimes it messes up people’s minds. One game ran 1.g4 Nf6 2.g5 d5 3.gxf6 Resigns. I can’t explain it either.

if you really want to test the grob ... then

message russ asking for a big grob tournament,
put up a prize for the winner,

calculate the results black v white at the end of the tourney,
give one point for a round 1 win,
if the groupsize is "G" then give G points for a round 2 win,
and G*G for a round three win.