Opening Lessons From Basel V

IN round five I had black against Steve Heron from Liechtenstein, who is 11 or 12 and has a Fide rating of 1580.

Sicilian Accelerated Dragon

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nb3!?

There are eight more-popular moves in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database, but the text has been played by grandmasters. The idea, normally, is to inhibit Black's thematic Accelerated pawn-thrust ...d5.

5...Bg7 6.Bd3?!

But this puts ...d5 back on the agenda. Normal is 6.Be2, while 6.Nc3 allows the controversial 6...Bxc3+!?

6...Nf6 7.Nc3 d5

There are 50 examples of 7...0-0 in Mega21 and just five of 7...d5, but Kjetil A Lie (2493), the strongest player to reach the position after 7.Nc3, chose the thematic text.

8.0-0 0-0

Komodo12.1.1 narrowly prefers 8...d4, but Stockfish13 likes castling.

9.Re1 e5

Both engines like 9...d4.

10.Bg5 d4 11.Nd5 Be6 12.Nxf6+ Bxf6 13.Bxf6 Qxf6

Position after Black has connected rooks

It might be thought White is doing well as Black's fianchettoed bishop has been exchanged, but White has few prospects of exploiting the holes around the black king. Meanwhile Black has more space in the centre and the more-active bishop. The engines agree Black is better.