Lessons From Newcastle IX

IN round nine at the Northumbria Challengers (U2000 Fide) I had White against a Ukrainian junior rated 1717 ECF/1575 Fide.

The full game can be seen at N9 but here I want to look at the opening, which was a Moscow Variation of the Sicilian.

It began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7, reaching a position occurring 21,905 times in ChessBase's 2022 Mega database.

After 5.0-0 Nc6 the most popular continuations are 6.c3, 6.c4, 6.d4 and 6.Re1, but I played 6.Qe2!?

The idea is to support the e4 pawn with the queen while allowing the king's rook to shadow the black queen from d1. Meanwhile White holds back on deciding whether to go for a Maróczy Bind or build a centre with c3 and d4.

The game continued 6...Nf6 7.Rd1 e6.

How should White proceed?

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From a theoretical view the Maróczy Bind is considered most effective when Black develops the dark-square bishop at e7, which is why just 18 out of 266 games that reach the diagram in Mega22 see the continuation 8.c3. On the other hand if Black goes for a fianchetto with 7...g6 the bind is considered less effective, which is why 118 out of 128 games in Mega22 see 7...g6 met with 8.c3.

The game went 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4, and now 9...Be7 is normal but my opponent played 9...Nxd4!? 10.Rxd4 Qc6?! (10....Rc8!? is probably better), which also occurred in the stem game, Nicolas Rossolimo - Haije Kramer, Hoogovens (Beverwijk, Netherlands) 1950.

One point of Black's last move is it discourages 11.c4?! - setting up a Maróczy Bind - as Black can reply 11...e5, although White gets some compensation for the pawn after, say, 12.Rd1 Qxe4 13.Be3 or 12.Rd1 Nxe4 13.Nd2.

I continued 11.Nc3, which has also been played by Ulf Andersson, but more convincing is Rossolimo's 11.Rc4, after which his game against Kramer went 11...Qd7 12.Nc3 Rc8 13.Rxc8+ Qxc8 14.Bf4 Qc6 15.Rd1, when White's lead in development and pressure against e6 gave him at least a slight edge, according to Stockfish15 and Komodo13.02 (1-0, 37 moves).

CONCLUSION: Bb5(+) lines against the Sicilian have the reputation in some circles of not being critical, or at least of not being sharp. But this game confirms what is probably the more-prevalent impression that both sides need to play precisely to get something out of the opening.