Grand Prix Attack - Basics

I think that the Grand Prix Attack is a great system for launching attacks on Black's King in the Sicilian! These blitz games I played recently are 5 mins each - The ideas for White in the Gr.Pr. are the following:

1) Aim the White squared Bishop down the a2-g8 diagonal biting on the f7 pawn.

2) Having played e4 and f4 get an early push in with f5 ... if you manage to exchange the pawn on e6 then this takes an enemy pawn off of the above mentioned diagonal exposing f7 even more!

3) Castle Kingside and aim the f1 Rook at f7.

4) Try and swap off Blacks long range Bishop on g7 - this removes a defender of the King ...

5) Play Qe1 with the plan to place her on either g3 or h4 with kingside attack in mind ...

6) Support the Queen with a Knight placed on g5 ready for attack on f7 and h7.

7) Instead, aim for a more closed position by hemming in the g7 Bishop with e5 and f6.

8) Get the rooks onto the 3rd rank in readiness to switch to the h & g-files to bolster the attack.

In subsequent posts I will fish out some simple tactics that I have used in attacking positions ...

Note: these are only ideas for White and may well NOT be possible - it really depends on what your opponent allows you to do.  Here are some sample games to play through ...

Grand Prix Attack - 1
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2011.07.04"]
[White "greg_b"]
[Black "A-Player"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1492"]
[BlackElo "1490"]
[TimeControl "5 0"]
[Termination "greg_b won by checkmate"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.f4 d6 4.Bc4 e6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.O-O Bd7 7.d3 a6 8.a4 Nc6 9.Bb3 Qc7 10.Qe1 Nd4
11.Nxd4 cxd4 12.Ne2 Ne7 13.Bd2 Rc8 14.h4 h5 15.Ng3 Rf8 16.f5 gxf5 17.exf5 exf5 18.Nxf5 Bxf5 19.Rxf5 Be5 20.Rxh5 Qc5 21.Bf4 Ng6 22.Bxe5 dxe5 23.Qf2 Rc6 24.Re1 Nf4 25.Rhxe5+ Qxe5 26.Rxe5+ Re6 27.Qxf4 Rxe5 28.Qxe5+ Kd8 29.Qd6+ Ke8 30.a5 f5 31.Ba4+ Kf7 32.Qd7+ Kg8 33.Bb3+ Kh8 34.Qxd4+ Kh7 35.Qd7+ Kh6 36.Qd6+ Kg7 37.Qe5+ Kh6 38.d4 f4 39.Kf2 f3 40.gxf3 Kh7 41.Qh5+ Kg7 42.d5 Rd8 43.Qe5+ Kf7 44.d6+ Kf8 45.Qe7# 1-0


Grand Prix Attack - 2
[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2011.07.04"]
[White "greg_b"]
[Black "A-Player"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1501"]
[BlackElo "1536"]
[TimeControl "5 0"]
[Termination "greg_b won by checkmate"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 d6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6 6.O-O d5 7.exd5 exd5 8.Bb5 Bd7 9.d3 Be7 10.Bxc6 Bxc6 11.Ne5 O-O 12.a4 Rc8 13.Nb5 Bxb5 14.axb5 Qb6 15.c4 dxc4 16.dxc4 Rfd8 17.Qc2 Bd6 18.b3 Re8 19.Nf3 Re6 20.Ng5 Re7 21.Qf5 Rce8 22.Bb2 h6 23.Nh3 Ne4 24.Rf3 Nd2 25.Rg3 Ne4 26.Rxg7+ Kf8 27.Qh7 Nf6 28.Qh8+ Ng8 29.Qxg8# 1-0