Lessons From Northumbria III

MY third-round game in the Northumbria Challengers (U2000) began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 g6?!

I quickly got a good position with 5.d4, as can be seen at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2021/08/northumbria-round-three.html

As mentioned there, strong grandmasters have played 4...g6?!, but it is probably a mistake, as I explained at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2021/07/basel-round-four.html

But if 4...g6?! is wrong, what should Black play?

White's fianchetto means Black is free to more-or-less choose any normal Sicilian set-up.

Almost equally popular in ChessBase's 2021 Mega database are 4...d5 (351 games) and 4...d6 (350 games), although the former has tended to attract the more-famous names, including Anand, Caruana and Nakamura.

But far exceeding these moves in popularity is 4...Nf6, which scores an excellent 51%, much better than the 45% of 4...d5 and the 42% of 4...d6.

I only recently began experimenting with 3.g3, and in a tournament earlier this month in Poland I met 4...Nf6 with 5.Nc3, which seems a reasonable continuation - the game can be seen at https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2021/08/opening-lessons-from-wrocaw.html

But easily the most-common move in Mega21 is 5.Qe2 which, like 5.Nc3, defers a decision on whether to push the d pawn one square or two.

Black again has a wide choice of replies, but the most-popular moves are 5...d5, 5...d6 and 5...e5!?

I want to concentrate on the e-pawn move as it is the top choice of the analysis engines Stockfish14 and Komodo12.1.1.

Position after 5...e5!?

After 6.0-0 Be7 I played 7.Nc3 in a recent ongoing correspondence game, but the main continuation is 7.c3, when 7...0-0 8.Rfd1 is preparation by White for blasting open the centre.

However Black can challenge this with 8...d5, when the mainline 9.exd5 Qxd5 10.d3 Rd8 seems to give Black a pleasant game.

The engines prefer 8.d3, being ready to meet 8...d5 with 9.exd5 Qxd5 10.Re1, which the engines reckon gives White an edge.

They suggest meeting 8.d3 with 8...h6!?, with what they reckon is an equal game.

The position after 8...h6!? could have arisen from a King's Indian Attack in which White played Qe2 instead of the more-usual Nbd2.

This is arguably more flexible for White, but blacks who play ....e6 lines of the Sicilian should be used to facing the KIA.