yoo-hoo, sir lottttt... (grand prix attack)

Uh... can you explain the whole grand prix attack thing to me?

I've lost almost every game with it. I finally won one, but only because my opponent first blundered a pawn allowing me to get an outposted knight deep into the heart of the position and threaten the Passed Pawn of Doom, and secondly blundered mate. Game 554756

But obviously, from the massive string of losses, I haven't managed to successfully infer the ideas behind the line.

Game 554765 -- get knight behind f pawn pinned then traded, leading to hopelessly weak kingside. Get bishop arked, sac knight to maintain pressure on his queenside. Castle queenside due to shattered kingside. Get knight inserted into hole in center created by inability to advance d pawn and unwillingness to advance c pawn because of queenside castling need and forced trade of knigside knight. Etc. Then blunder queen, so lose on spot, but was going to lose anyway with crippled bishops and strong enemy knight outposts.

Or Game 554762 -- AGAIN THE HOLE ON d4! Another forced trade of the kingside bishop guarding the hole, and another use of it to win material. And I couldn't even close the a1-h8 diagonal because that would create a hole on d5!

Or here we go Game 551970 where it seems to transpose into a french where white is several tempo behind and has a weakened kindside. Admittedly, move 10 was a blunder, but the problem shouldn't have arisen!

How is this playable??

Any words of wisdom? Apart from ramming the f pawn straight up his kingside, which never happens, what's the deal?

I've sorta been playing a tempo-behind rossilimo with it, on the theory that if I can get a rossilimo with a pawn on f4, that's extra nice. Not working.

I mean, at least with the smith-morra I can get an open center, and hence the kind of fight I LIKE!

Hmm,I see it isn't working out for you.Ok,let's have a look at those games first.
Game 1: you blunder a piece and a bit later your queen.Let's not blame the opening for that.
Game 2: you fianchettoed your dark square bishop,I've never seen that in the grand prix,not saying it can't be done,but it looks weird to me,I think that bishop doesn't belong there but I would have to look that up to be sure.Also,your oppo outrated you by 500 points,my guess is he would have beaten you regardless of your opening play.
Game 3: I think you should have simply taken the d5-pawn and then either maintain that pluspawn or kick black's queen around,depending on what black chooses.

I can't really help you out on this,I never played it much and these days I don't play it at all,I stick to my Bb5 nonsense.I do have a database of 18762 games,all in pgn.If you like I can email it to you(this goes for everyone else who would fancy having such a database).Or I can try to make a crash course using a book I have,but that book may be a little outdated.And I'm not so sure how good a course that I make would be,heh.
Anyway,I only told you to give it a try 'cause you like f4 so much.If it doesn't suit you,you must choose something else.

Sir Lot.

Thanks. I realize that last post sounded whiney, which was not intended.

If you wanna send the database to paul@paultopia.org, I would not object :-)

I have a great book on it by Plaskett from everyman chess. You should check it out. Back when I played e4, that is what I played against c5!

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
I have a great book on it by Plaskett from everyman chess. You should check it out. Back when I played e4, that is what I played against c5!

Originally posted by paultopia
Thanks. I realize that last post sounded whiney, which was not intended.

If you wanna send the database to paul@paultopia.org, I would not object :-)