Checkhover II

     OK. I was bored today. This is the second installment in my series of articles on the Checkhover Variation of the Sicilian.  In my first article I went through 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6.  This time I will be going through the moves 6…bxc6 and then go in 4...Bd7. One thing that you may want to consider doing is read the articles in order because the patterns build on one another. Here is the link to the first article

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-sicilian-checkhover-variation-a-diamond-in-the-rough2

     Starting with the regular Checkhover move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 I will now concentrate on the move 6…bxc6.  This move is somewhat less aggressive than Bxc6 but I think that it gives white too free of a hand during the game. Play continues like this 6…bxc6 7.0-0 then 7…e5 is almost forced.  The reason is that if Black plays 7…Nf6 then e5 is very hard for Black to deal with.  After 7…e6 then 8.Qd3 d5 9.Nc3 Be7 10.b3 Nf6 11.e5 and white has the advantage.  But back to the main line.