I only recently started experimenting with the Sveshnikov after going through a bunch of master games and what is considered the 'main lines' (since I don't have a book on the opening) ... and I've had my first outing with it two weeks ago.

I've posted the game here (with some annotations/analysis):

http://blog.chess.com/the_cheradenine/a-fun-line-in-the-sveshnikov

I decided on the move 11...Nd4 at the board, being unaware of whether it is an actual line or whether it's considered to be sound. It just seemed ok, intuitively (it's a pawn sacrifice). I've found a few games played with it, which seem ok, but my question is: Have you seen this line before? If you're playing the Sveshnikov yourself, what is your take on it? Would you have preferred 11...b4?

And also - what are the most common lines that you have faced in practice, in club/tournament play? Which do you find to be the most critical/challenging?

Thx for the feedback :)

For awhile, I gave flight to this fanciful idea:

Looks interesting... Could you maybe show a game or two of those that you've played? :)

I wish I could.  I played this back in the 1980s and I don't have any of my scoresheets from that era.  It was before I started using Chessbase also.  Since then, I've more or less dropped the Sicilian from my repertoire, using it only as a surprise weapon.  I did check and there are some games in Opening Explorer.  My gut feeling is that it can't really be sound, but it is probably usable in normal tournament chess.

Wow, I like this.  This has to have been tried by at least a master somewhere?  Positionally makes great sense, only thing holding it back is that you lose a pawn :)  I'm interested in seeing someone make this work.

Looked it up, it's been tried but had some bad results :)  I like the idea though, will save it for speed games, thanks for sharing it.

I scored quite well in sub-2200 play in tournament time controls, and never tested it against Masters.  It's certainly "dazzling" enough to befuddle non-Masters.  But IM Pfren is quite correct - and as my intuition already knew, it just had to be bad against accurate play.  In the end, I cannot, in good conscience, advise you to play something against non-Masters that you wouldn't be comfortable with against the best available moves.  Still, those days were fun!

Thx for the info :)

Yes, such moves usually are... Though I see that some people are actually willing to play the following weird move (I only discovered this yesterday, so I guess I really have to look up some of these more obscure lines for when I'm playing White):

Punished more severely than having ruptured pawns and a deficit in development?  And is that "cheradenine" as in the book "Use of weapons"?

Haha, yes! It's one of my favorite books (as I'm really a Iain M. Banks fan :D) - but no one had recognized the name before :)

Yes, I know, the position is just hideous for Black, I am wondering why they have covered it in their book... it's obviously not a more promising response and it's dismantled quite easily... or maybe I'm missing something? After all, I haven't seen the book, I've just seen the chapter titles "Taking the Sting Out of the Open Sicilian"

http://www.chessville.com/reviews/DangerousWeaponsNimzoIndian_and_Sicilian.htm

Reminds me of an old smyslov game where he as white gave himself similar pawns.  The annotations said something about him not respecting his opponent :)  50 some moves later they drew.

The main drawback I see is black has no way to play for a win, and basically, like smyslov, wants to prove they can draw an ugly position.

I am not quite so optimistic... I try to prove that I can lose an ugly position.

Haha, well, you're right.  I shouldn't have said "no way"

Well, this might be an old analysis of the line, but here is an example of how White can play for an advantage in that endgame:

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/lane124.pdf