Henri Grob. There's method in his madness

Henri Grob has acquired notoriety for inventing one of the most eccentric of chess openings. But his story is of interest outside footnotes in a chess book. 

First, you should know that as a player, Henri was of strong master level. He became Swiss champion and competed  in the strongest tournaments in his era in the 1930s and forties. He was also an accomplished painter

Zack, a chess punk of good standing, posted the opening move of the Grob opening in a diagram on what used to be known as Twitter, commentating.

1. g4 is the riskiest first move in chess. Its inventor, Henry Grob, was married 9 times. 

Further research suggests that 
His lack of success in the marital stakes is mirrored in the results he obtained playing  his chess opening. Beginners in chess are taught that opening moves should compete for control over the centre squares. Pushing the g pawn well outside the centre action area is to give it its technical term anti-positional, and should lead to a disadvantage.

Chess has always developed by players seeing beyond the obvious. I would place Henri  Grob as one such pioneer. His basic idea is a simplified version of a much more revolutionary concept by a far greater contemporary chess player Alexander Alekhine. His idea was chess as a battle for the centre ground, by control at a distance. 
This produced a revolution in chess  opening systems. Grob took Alekhine’s principles to an extreme by finding a reckless opening move, in military terms an advance against enemy forces without due preparation ...

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