The Grob is TERRIBLE: Here’s How to Refute This AWFUL Chess Opening! (No BS)

The Grob is terrible. It is a dubious opening leading by force to a position that is -1 for White. Here I show you exactly what you need to refute it. Here’s how to refute the line without any necessary extra sidelines to know. 1. g4 neglects the center, forces White to fall behind in development. Please direct anyone to this video looking for the correct response to 1. g4.

Here’s the analysis from the video. I hope you can use it to refute 1. g4 in your own games:

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59 Comments

  1. Can you prove a pawn is worth 4 tempi? Sounds a bit dubious tbh

  2. At 2:25 and at 3:20 I said "Black" instead of White talking a little bit too quickly.

  3. I hadn't seen this clear refutation of 1. g4. What's hilarious is that on the side of this video there's a video titled "Killer Grob" by a 2100 player who isn't strong enough to understand logically and positionally why 1. g4 is a bad move (no offense intended. I don't know him personally, just trying to speak factually here). 1. g4 is actually the weakest move you can play with White, which is amazing: it doesn't fit into any other opening system if White tries to transpose back into something normal. It's even worse than 1. f3 e5 2. e3, which gives you a French Defense with …f6 thrown in randomly, which isn't actually that bad.

  4. The title of the video should be "1. g4 is the worst first move. Here's the proof." Very good! I'm inspired to refute it! Please play 1. g4 against me!

  5. Your refutation of the Grob is beautiful! Perfect

  6. Finally someone who leaves analysis material!

  7. This is a technically "bad" opening, BUT when used against human opponent unfamiliar with it; a black player warry of traps may play too passively against it. I was just recently introduced to the Grob and not freaking out when white queen threatened my rook was key!

  8. during the 5m mark you discuss going after the d-pawn but dont mention anything about white playing e3 which seems natural.

  9. the advantage of Grob is the game become interesting. If your oponente is weak the game will end quicky. if your oponent have the same game level than you probably you Will lost but you learn in the process. there is games where Magnus Carlsen play it with very Strong players and win and 1 game where he draw but almost lost against Grob. I play grob and is very fun but to win I prefer London System.

  10. 1:59 Why would white move the queen there so early? Why not just capture the D5 pawn black is trying to defend with C6 with the C4 pawn, THEN move the queen to B3 after black recaptures it? Black still defending that pawn after that? Queen to A4 check, then grab the bishop.

  11. I had a friend of mine give me advice on the beating the Grob – "Make the ***** wish he'd never played g4".

  12. After watching this, my opponent played d4 on his second move 🤦‍♂️

  13. I just played against a very terrible grob variation on Lichess. The guy didn’t know what he was doing and only played with the H rook and G knight, only bringing out his light square bishop when I was starting a checkmate sequence.

  14. Just played against this clown opening. I hadn't seen it before, so I mainly did standard Caro play. Absolutely obliterated him. So positionally weak.

  15. Erik, What u call "Grob" are transpositions into Reversed Sicilian middlegames. Hanging out with chess.commies and redditors is what makes u call it "Grob." IM Henri Grob is just one guy playing a faulty interpretation of the historical "Spike" worked out by Althausen and called the Genoa by Tartakower and played as the Kalibri in the far east. Look at it this way: Instead of for example playing 17. g4 made after 22 agonal minutes of indecision, a courageous person plays 1.g4 and commits to the attack. Now one is impelled 2 play; no "further" mistakes allowed. This video's content ends at 2:08 when this white fish loses the line. This game a strawman & irrelevant fish food. Instead of the incorrect Qxb7, here white plays "cd cd? Qa4! Nc6 Qg4" (1-0) or ed Nc3 Nf6 only then Qb7. In practice, White controls owns d5; so-called slav solids r just "do-nothing reactionary wait-&-see nonplayers who are so blinded by the center they lose on the flanks; Grobbers run right around the "solids". At 3:15 you can like me score dozens of Nd6 smothered mates; this guy's playing white is awkward. Spike is wicked deep pre-computer chess; you wouldn't understand. You say "Terrible!" Prima Facia Much!? White's tertiary diagonals clear the way 4 the quickest opening in all of chess; Grob is akin 2 Tao: those who laugh do not know. What you've spewed is true from 1 rigid perspective; Truer r the myriad of intangible benefits u neglect (black players still castle into the open g file / tailor made for white's doubled rooks / novelty value; so many quick resignations from lost pieces; there r traps galore u won't find elsewhere; don't tell me, Erik, you just have no clue here). If you're not looking for the ways it can be great, then what is awful is the lazy work you're doing. Play it and discover it's virtues; that's true chessplay. Thanks, Doctor Maurice.

  16. I hate those clueless people challenging the opening knowledge of an IM, people who blunder smothered mate in grob lines are probably 1200s. Go learn a real opening instead of trying to make Clemenz opening work or some shit.

  17. I've never seen FM Mark the Duck play the grob this way.

  18. It weakens kingside structure (crucial) and doesn't take any space in the center. Just as bad as kadas or clemenz

  19. 2:00heres the point as f6 is a big mistake,in order to play qg3,white should capture the pawn after that play qg3 then enter the main line

  20. So here is my problem with your video, when FM mark the duck plays it against WGM and wins

  21. True it is a weak openning. When I have played it though I always thought that you are trying to lose the pawn on the G file, opening your kings rook, this coupled with a fianchetto dark square bishop. However this does work best if Black castles on the Kings side, which any decent player doesnt do, especially as Black naturally develops to castle on the Queens side. Also the white King can remain in the centre for a very long time!

  22. bro, grob is for an endless attack opening, i know there is some weaknesses, but is such a trap opening, and i love it, but i respect ur opinion

  23. i came here after losing a game to grob…..this helped so muchhhh thank youu sir

  24. Sure if you are an IM and u have studied tne opening.

  25. Author!You are idiot!The main line in this variant is not 4.Qb3?! but 4.cd!cd5.Qb3! and White stand better! There is no move 5…e6??6.Qa4+ and then Q:g4 with spare bishop!!!

  26. I learned to play chess when I was a little girl around age 4 with my Aunt Joy. I am now 63. Much of what I like today is what she brought to my life or what I have found useful in my life (not the same thing). She liked Leonard Cohen, he was a young man then; she liked Shakespear's writings, and other more modern writers, she understood the usefulness of chess.

    It was back in 2015 that I learned that Briley Richmond liked to refer to chess. I remember him telling Sharon Dodds that I'd mastered the kings-pawn move and Sharon responded that she didn't know the game. I know he thought that I didn't. I don't play and surely didn't go the beach where they had set up a massive chessboard. My daughter's boyfriend, Conner, is somewhat of a chess master, I imagine he thinks I don't know the game either. I know it, I just don't care for public play.

    Joy liked this poem, "The Boot, the Shoe, and Slipper" and had me memorize it. It has a great moral about what people see and what the value is – whether it's chess or something else.

  27. Just lost an annoying game against this, thank you for providing me with the refutation.

  28. Grob is only good opening when you make a Coca-cola gambit.

  29. I used to play the grob with some success, then stopped after running into terrible positions, but when it was played against me I kept forgetting how to punish it properly so this was useful.

  30. The GROB is bad against computers for sure. For humans though……

  31. When you retreat the rook from c4 why dont you protect the pawn on A7 with rook to C7? The pawn is just hanging and i dont see why you wouldnt protect it. Am i missing something? Can someone please explain?

  32. Most players don't know about this opening….

  33. I honestly think that g4 is not bad oppening, even facing these lines I menaged to win a lot of games, and for me I have a lot of fun playing this oppening!

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