3.h4 against the King's Indian and Grünfeld by Sipke Ernst

3.h4 against the King's Indian and Grünfeld by Sipke Ernst

For some time now, we’ve known that the strongest chess engines like to push their flank pawns up the board. This has led to an interesting system, with which we can meet the Grunfeld and the King’s Indian. Studying the mainlines is time consuming, and it is possible that our opponents may know the typical plans in those openings better than us, right? Therefore, it is a great idea to take Grunfeld and King’s Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start!

Let’s go 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 first and now play 3.h4!?, following in the footsteps of Topalov, who unleashed it against Giri in the candidates tournament of 2016. Since then, numerous games have been played with 3.h4 by the likes of Carlsen, Caruana, Ding and others. After the surprise, Grunfeld players will find it difficult to strike in the centre with their typical ...d5 followed by ...c5 as it is very hard to ignore white’s push on the h-file. Also, the King’s Indian players will find that their usual attacking ideas on the kingside don’t work anymore and will have to resort to other ways of finding counterplay.

• Video running time: 4 hours (English)
• With interactive training including video feedback
• Extra: Model games database & Training with ChessBase apps - Memorize the opening repertoire and play key positions against Fritz on various levels

Sample video

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. Alternative Systems
4. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4
5. 3...d5
6. 3...h6
7. 3...b6 /e6
8. 3...h5 Grunfeld Style
9. 3...h5 King's Indian Style
10. 3...c6
11. 3...Nc6
12. 3...c5 4.d5 b5 Sidelines
13. 3...c5 4.d5 b5 Main Line
14. Main Line
15. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4
16. Move 5 Alternatives
17. 5...Nc6
18. 5...c5 6.d5: Move 6/7 Alternatives
19. 5...c5 6.d5 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.exd5 h5
20. 5...c5 6.d5 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.exd5 Qe7 and Alternatives
21. 5...c5 6.d5 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.exd5 Nbd7
22. 5...c5 6.d5 e6 7.Be2 exd5 8.exd5 0-0
23. Exercises
24. Description
25. Exercise 1
26. Exercise 2
27. Exercise 3
28. Exercise 4
29. Exercise 5
30. Exercise 6
31. Exercise 7
32. Exercise 8
33. Exercise 9
34. Exercise 10
35. Exercise 11
36. Exercise 12
37. Exercise 13
38. Exercise 14
39. Exercise 15

System requirements : Minimum: Pentium III 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Windows 7, DirectX9 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, Windows Media Player 9 and internet connection for program activation. Recommended: PC Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 / 8 or 10, DirectX10 graphic card (or compatible) with 512 MB RAM or better, 100% DirectX10 compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11 and internet connection for program activation.