knightmare wrote on 01/06/09 at 16:24:28:
As with other offbeat openings, the main "advantage" of the Grob IMHO is this: nearly nobody plays it. To prove its soundess, it needs tests by the "heavyweights" (2600+). Or on high-level correspondence Chess.
As that is very unlikely to happen, the Grob is playable. As is 1.f3 or 1.Na3. Quite another question is, how good it is.
Well, anything is "playable" if all it means is that a move is legal and does not immediately lose.
The Grob is not good.
I have played it often. One time, eeven in the World Open and won sectional $$$ with it. But, it is not sound.
The reason I play it is extolled in Chess Openings Theory and Practice, p.781, (and I quote):
"a defiant, almost contemptuous beginning, ...white appears to be saying: See in what low esteem I hold you. I can toy with you.....etc"
One of my favorite openings, and have used it to beat many masters otb (one time each! ~ hehe), but it is truly garbage.