A surprising h-pawn push in the Taimanov Sicilian
The position I want to share came up in analysis while reading the book Nigel Davies's new book on the Taimanov Sicilian, which focuses on 5...a6 and usually following up with ...Nge7. I usually like to begin investigation of a line by seeing where simple development leads. A solid move that shows the flexibility of the Taimanov would be the 6.Be2, when Black can continue in several ways.
Black can go into what would be a Classical Scheveningen by playing 6...d6, having avoided the Keres Attack. Another standard move would be 6...Qc7 but Davies thinks this should be considered a Paulsen as one of Taimanov's main ideas in his system was 6...Nge7!?, intending to capture on d4 and bring the other knight to c6 with tempo. This motif of Taimanov's comes up in many lines, not only the 6.Be2 variation. Now, White has many ideas after 6...Nge7 but the one that seems to make the most sense to me is to avoid allowing the exchanging idea by dropping the knight back with 7.Nb3.
Having avoided the exchange, Black's Knight does not look ideally placed on e7 and he will have to find a square to reposition it. Of the 61 games in the lichess master database, 30 of them continued with the immediate 7...Ng6, and this is also what Davies suggests in his new book. Although this is all known theory, I had never seen it before and found it surprising that this was an acceptable development scheme for Black. Apparently, this is not such a silly first impression to have as Davies follows 7...Ng6 with this passage:
"QUESTION: Is that really a reasonable square for the knight? --- ANSWER: Actually, it's not bad. If White were to play f2-f4-f5 it would find an excellent outpost on e5. Sometimes Black will play ...f7-f6 and then bring the knight to h8 and f7." -Opening Repertoire: The Sicilian Taimanov, Nigel Davies, Everyman Chess 2022
Davies cites the game Jansa, Vlastimil - Taimanov, Mark E, 0-1, Sukhumi, 1972, lichess.org/JMZYNtzF and shows some interesting analysis. This game followed with 8.O-O (as did 21 of the 30 master games to reach this position). It seems like White has tons of reasonable moves here. To prove that no idea is off limits, even 8.h4!? just giving away a pawn seems to give White enduring compensation.
The Ng6 is a target and with a White bishop on e2 Black doesn't have an option of meeting 8.h4 with 8...h5 and is compelled to accept the pawn with 8...Nxh4. White can kick the Knight right back to g6 with g3 (which will later support f2-f4 and continue on with typical Sicilian development with Be3, Qd2 and O-O-O. Now if Black wants to ...O-O the open h-file will be very useful to White. If Black keeps the king in the center, that comes with its own risks. Perhaps Black can generate play of his own somehow, but I wouldn't know the best plan for Black.
