Sicilian Najdorf Practice Group

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63
Aug 9, 2015
0 (#8895)
0 (#18710)
AquaDoppio
21 days ago
As for castling instead of Nc5, that is a very uncomfortable line imho haha
AquaDoppio
21 days ago
Thanks. I thought it was a great position for W but don’t see any forcing moves. If B manages to break free, W can have some problems.
tlay80
21 days ago
For instance, instead of a3 at the end of that, White can go Rg7, and taking the rook spells disaster because after Black gives up the bishop with Bxg7 fxg7 Rg8, White can sac a knight or bishop on b5 and then crash through on d6. But even if Black doesn't take the rook and just tries to push b4, then Nd5 is very strong. So a3 turns out not to be necessary.
tlay80
21 days ago
To answer your actual question, though, I believe one of White's strongest ideas in the line you give is to try to sacrifice a knight with Nd5.
tlay80
21 days ago
I can't remember as much as I'd like about the 13 ... Nc5 line. But the brief answer is that, partly because lines like the one you gave, the whole 13 ... Nc5 line has been out of fashion for a decade or so, largely in favor of the unintuitive 13 ... 0-0, an idea of Ju Wenjun's, which she and others have shown to be surprisingly not suicidal.
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