My first "sneaky Grunfeld" game - opponent came up with interesting move

[Fromper]

So I played the Sneaky Grunfeld for the first time today. I still have yet to actually play the Zuke in a USCF tourney game since switching to 1. d4.

After 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 g6 4. c4 Bg7 5. cxd5, my opponent came up with a move that's not mentioned in Zuke Em - 5. ... Qxd5. I continued with the natural 6. Nc3, and my opponent retreated with Qd8.

So my queen's bishop stayed shut in, and I wasn't sure of the best plan to proceed from there. Since the knight was on c3 already, I ended up pushing e4, and after he castled, I played it like a 150 Attack, without castling (until very late in the game, anyway - and I castled queen side).

I blundered a pawn, but managed to get an attack anyway, and the game ended with my opponent blundering to give up his queen for a rook, so I got the win. Afterward, we decided that the endgame was going my way if we'd traded queens, even if he hadn't blundered.

The game was too ugly to bother sharing, but I am curious as to what everyone thinks of that opening line. How would you respond to the queen recapture?

--Fromper

[sarienbarry]

Congratulations for the victory.
Can you share the snap of your game?
It will be easy to understand what is the position of the game at a certain time.
Many people sacrifices their queen to stop opponent from castling.
waiting for reply

[Fromper]

It wasn't any sort of queen sac. At the end, my opponent blundered to give me his queen, then resigned.

What I'm really asking about is the opening line: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 g6 4. c4 Bg7 5. cxd5 Qxd5 instead of the normal 5. ... Nxd5. As I said, I continued with 6. Nc3 Qd8, and because my bishop was still shut in by the e3 pawn, I didn't get the normal position for this opening, so I wasn't really sure of the best plan. I ended up getting a king side attack, but more out of luck and my opponent's bad play than because the position really called for it.

--Fromper

[Rudel]

Hi Fromper,
Sorry for not commenting earlier, but I think after this response White can just "play good chess." However, the best line for White is probably to transpose (surprisingly) to a good variation of the QGA by playing Bc4.

After 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 g6 4.c4 Bg7 5.cxd5 Qxd5?! 6.Nc3 Qd8 7.Bc4 0-0 8.0-0, you will have transposed to the line
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Bxc4 Bg7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3

At that point, Black typically plays ...Nfd7 and then ...Nb6, so White has plenty of time to develop. He normally plays Qe2 and then Rd1, but playing h3 first might be better since it is a bit of a waste to play Qe2 and then have to play Qxf3 after ...Bg4 has plopped down.