Neo-Grünfeld Defense

The Neo-Grünfeld Defense covers the systems in which Black answers 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 with an early ...d5 while White has held back Nc3. The shared position after 2...g6 also leads to the King's Indian and the Grünfeld proper. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings files the Neo-Grünfeld lines under D70–D79.

White usually delays the queen's knight in order to fianchetto the king's bishop. From g2 it bears down on d5 and contests the long diagonal with Black's bishop on g7, and White often declines to play e4 so as not to block it. Because no knight stands on c3, Black cannot trade knights with ...Nxc3, and the familiar Exchange Grünfeld structure, with White's pawn center reinforced from c3, does not arise. The struggle is instead over d4 and d5 and the two long diagonals, and the play is generally more maneuvering than in the main Grünfeld.

The most direct fianchetto order is 3. g3 d5, known as the Kemeri Variation. In the Exchange Variation, 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5, White can follow with 6. e4 to gain time against the centralized knight. With Nf3 included, the Delayed Exchange Variation, 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. O-O, gives Black a choice between 7...c5, hitting d4 at once, and 7...Nb6, withdrawing the knight. In the Ultra-Delayed Exchange Variation Black first plays 5...c6, and after 6. O-O d5 7. cxd5 cxd5 the pawn structure is symmetrical. That makes it one of the lower-risk branches. The Classical Variation arises from a Nf3 move order, 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. O-O d5 6. c4, with both kings castled before the c-pawn is advanced.

The Goglidze Attack, 3. f3 d5, takes a different approach. Here White prepares to build a pawn center with e4 supported by a pawn rather than a knight. After 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 the knight has no exchange available and must retreat with 5...Nb6, so Black's task becomes undermining a broad center from a distance rather than trading it off.