A Positional Anti-Sicilian
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on Thu, 04/16/2009 at 2:51pm.
The Grand Prix Attack or also known by some as the McDonnell Attack is a strong anti-Sicilian opening. The Grand Prix Attack is most commonly started by 2.Nc3 first before going on with 3.f4. The modern main line continues 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7. White can now play the positional 5.Bb5, threatening to double Black's pawns with Bxc6, or the more aggressive 5.Bc4, aiming for a kingside attack. A less common option is 2... e6, as La Bourdonnais played against McDonnell.
This is exactly what the chess program, Crafty, played against me after my early pawn push to f4, as shown in the game presented below. We traded off queens rather early and our positions seemed fairly equal before I started blundering. The most notable blunder from this game was 45.Rc3 which allowed my opponent to pin my rook. Now I was playing against a computer with my lonely knight against his overruling rook - obviously no more winning chances. Several moves later I resigned. I played with the White pieces.
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