Grand Prix Attack - The DEADLY TRIANGLE ...

The Grand Prix Attack can be really lethal when played properly ... 

From researching the web, I can see that chessdoctrine.com has some excellent resources on this opening.  

I would say that, if you like to win games quickly with an "all out attack", then this is the opening for you!

Essentially, the Grand Prix Attack (GPA) is known as a 'closed Sicilian'.  The reason for this is that instead of White playing 2. Nf3 3.d4 they instead elect to play 2.Nc3 and 3.f4, keeping the 'd' file closed which is a much like a King's Gambit where Black has played c5 and not e5. 

The themes for the attack itself are as follows: 

Theme 1) Queen moves from to h4:  (Queen moves from d1 to e1 to achieve this) to attack Kingside 

Theme 2) White responds to Black's pawn triangle (normally Black fianchetos his Bishop in front of his castled King) by advancing his 'f' pawn and often sacrificing it on f5 ... to clear his dark squared Bishop for an exchange with Black's dark squared Bishop.  If he can, he moves his Bishop to h6 to get the exchange in ...     

Theme 3) White Knight hops to g5!

 

   

And there you have White's deadly Triangle of Bishop, Knight and Queen!!

I think that this is a pattern worth remembering an even happened in a bullet game played by
Magnus Carlsen himself .. 

I should write emphasise here that if you manage to get your White pieces into this configuration, it doesn't mean you've won - but as Black - it can be a nightmare to deal with ... Here's Carlsen's game - albeit a bullet one some years ago ... 

Theme 4:  Sac the exchange (the exchange sacrifice is the final theme to remember ... ) 

Hint:  Can find the checkmate after the Black King moves to his final available square .. ??

Good Luck with the GPA!!