What's White's idea with this move? Usually 6...e5 7.Nf5 is a bad idea but here it suddenly works. What gives?
6.a3 Najdorf
Sort:
Where is Anish Giri when you need him?
ironbasicb wrote:
Take for instance 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. g3 Bg7 7. Bg2 O-O 8. O-O a6 9. a3; it can't be that bad for White.
Yes, I feel the position feels bad.
The move 9.a3 doesn't feel like it is helping the white position.
I would play 9.h3
@ironbasicb
I believe you are missing chances to beat your opponent a lot easier.
The line you are playing can be reached thru a decent set of opening move orders.
However, in the games you have showed.
Their is more critical continuations I believe you could chose from.
I will give you an example:
The above set of moves is called the Closed Sicilian. However, it is still unclear if the position will remain a Closed Sicilian or tranpose into something esle.
In many cases, Black will not play 2...d6 here. Black has several moves. However, they usually will not respond with 2...d6 against the Closed Sicilian Set up.
I believe white should consider responding to 2...d6 with the move 3.f4.
The position will than turn into a Grand Prix type position which I believe will be to whites favor.
In your game you played 3.Nf3 and black played a6.
I believe you should than consider playing 4.d4 hitting at the center to see how black will respond.
In your game, You didn't!
You played 4.g3. Black responsed with 4...g6.
After a few more set of moves you enter into a common position. However, you enter into it through a questionable move order.
I believe the correct move order is below:
If instead of 5...a6
Black plays 5...g6 the position black has is known as the Sicilian Dragon.
I don't think playing 6.g3 in response is the most theoritical response.
Instead I would play 6.Be3 which is the Yugoslav Attack.
It is extremely tactical. It is extremely sharp. It is extremely aggressive.
I think it is the most theortically challenging line to play against the Sicilian Dragon.
However, if you like your set up with g3.
You could play g3 against the Sicilian Dragon.
I think the ommittion of a6 might be the only deciding factor. However, sometimes they play a6 any way so maybe it won't effect you to much.
Nevertheless, In your game, You ended up in the below set of moves.
The move 9.h3 is a good move because it stops black from making use of the g4 square.
In this position, Black has less space. It is hard for him to move every single piece. The reason why is because some of his pieces are hitting the same squares as other pieces.
1 way to fix this problem = to trade a few pieces off.
When you have less space you can sometimes get rid of a few pieces so that way you dont have pieces fighting for the same squares.
Black has less space in this position because of his center pawns.
The d6 pawn + e7 pawn are further back.
White has more space in center because of his e4 pawn + he traded his D pawn.
As white you don't want to trade pieces!
The reason why is because you have all the space!
You can move your pieces to more spots than the enemy. Which lets you attack them from different directs.
It can help you overwhelm them.
Lets say you are in a fight. Now if the person you are fighting never moves and stands in the same spot in front of you.
Than you know were the punch is coming from! It can only come from 1 direction.
However, what if the person is like in the shadows. They jump out hit you than fade away so you can't see them any more!
How can you know were they will hit you from next? It extremely tough!
Which is the point.
The move 9.h3 is trying to restrain/restrict black.
Now lets say you play 9.a3 instead.
Well now look at all the moves black can try against you now!
He could try Ng4 trying to reroute the knight it to e5!
or
He could try Bg4 trying to cause you some discomfort!
You will not let him take your queen with the bishop.
However, you have allowed him the chance to gain some initative. He has some annoying pressure.
How will you deal with this Bg4 move?
Will you block it by moving your knight to f3 or e2? Which could cause you some pressure because you be in a pin.
Will you move your queen from it position? Which could cause you to put it in the wrong spot. Which might hurt you later down the road.
All he did was a developing move to cause you to feel some inconvience.
Not every move in chess is a killer punch. Sometimes the moves are merely a jab! They jab to get you off balance. These moves which seem completely meaningless could be extremely dangerious.
So now you see why the move 9.a3 feels so bad to me.
ironbasicb wrote:
holloween, on Bg4 goes Ne2 followed by h3
rerouting your knight? nothing changes either
Everything has changed!
Look at the position from black point of view.
Lets say I have the black pieces in this position. Lets say you played 9.a3.
Now when I look at the black position do you know what I see?
- I see the black king side in this position looks very well developed.
- I see the black king is safe.
- I see the black queen side isn't fully developed.
(Knight, Bishop, Queen) - I see the black rooks are not connected.
Notice how I am listing out all of the normal things which I see in this position as black.
Some of the things I listed above are good which is why I put green text.
However, some of the items I listed are bad which is why I put in red text.
In this position, I would try to fix the things in red text first.
Now I have a choice between Knight, Bishop, & Queen.
I don't know which 1 to move yet. However, I do know that I want to move one of them since they are only thing left I have to develop.
If you play the move 9.a3, I feel as if the decision between the 3 units has already been made for me!
I can gain a tempo by moving my Bishop! The move 9...Bg4 has become a forcing move.
I had a choice between any 3 pieces. However, your move 9.a3 has made the bishop move look like the best option.
If I play Bg4, You will have to respond. Now lets say you do the knight retreat. Well now you have retreated your same developed piece because of a threat which I made with my undevelopped piece!
Notice how you are using the same developed piece again!
And guess what? It is my turn to move again to develop another piece! So now I develop my knight to c6.
Now lets say you play h3 here!
Notice what the move h3 is doing here! You are playing a forcing move to try and "Regain" the lost time you had!
Do you see how you lost time?
You lost tempi/time/development when I moved an undeveloped piece forcing you to move an existing developing piece.
The move h3 is trying to force black to move the bishop which has already been developed previously!
Lets see what happens if I do move my bishop back!
Notice what happen above! When I moved my bishop which was already developed back to d7. I gave you time to develop another piece.
Such as your dark bishop as an example!
However, there is a problem here! The problem is I don't have to "retreat my bishop" I can do another forcing move as black! Do you see it?
The move 11...Bxe2 is another forcing move from black. You have to respond or you lose material!
No matter how you respond the damage has already been done!
Lets say you take with the queen.
Well guess what? It is now my turn again to develop my queen!
Look at the above position!
Do you remember the list of problems I had?
- I see the black queen side isn't fully developed.
(Knight, Bishop, Queen) - I see the black rooks are not connected.
I have fixed all my problems.
Now look at the white position.
Black has developed 3 pieces and connected my rooks.
In addition, my queen on b6 is very active hitting the b2 pawn.
The queen on b6 will make it hard for white to develop the dark square bishop.The dark bishop is only thing defending the b2 pawn at the moment.
From move 9 to 12 - White has moved a3 + h3 + Queen
From move 9 to 12 - Black has moved Bishop + Knight + Queen + Connected rooks
In this position, I believe everything has changed. I no longer like the white position any more. I like the black position.
Bg4 Qd3
penandpaper0089 wrote:
What's White's idea with this move? Usually 6...e5 7.Nf5 is a bad idea but here it suddenly works. What gives?
I believe the idea behind 6.a3 is to address the move Qb6.
Usually black has a main response to deal with Nf5. The main response for black is to play the move d5 which undermines the knight on f5.
The e4 pawn is the outpost which white is using to support the knight on f5.
The move d5 attacks the e4 pawn so it makes sense.
White usually counters d5 by pinning the knight on f6.
White plays the move Bg5 which pins the knight on f6 to the queen.
Black usually counters Bg5 with the move d4 trying to push the knight on c3 backwards.
White at this point usually throws in an intermisso move with the move Bxf6.
Black is than left with 2 moves Qxf6 or gxf6.
If black plays Qxf6, The white knight on c3 doesn't have to retreat because it can play Nd5 with tempo on the queen on f6.
Usually black players don't wish to allow such a move.
Thus, they play the move gxf6. Which forces the knight on c3 to move to b1 or e2.
After all of these moves black has 2 follow up continuations.
They can get rid of the knight on f5 with their light square bishop.
or
They can play the move Qb6 which hits the b2 pawn as well as the b4 square which can be an annoying check for white to deal with.
In those positions, Black usually has a wrecked pawn structure.
The only compensation they have is 2 center pawns + pair bishop
I think the move Qb6 might be slightly better than Bxf5 since it keeps the bishop pair. However, black has to deal with the knight on f5 for short amount of time.
As per your question:
I believe the move 6.a3 helps against some of the Qb6 variations because white has the option of playing b4.
However, I don't know for 100%. No one every really talks about it.
It does seem like the b4 push prevents the attack on b2 + covers b4.
@Xplayer: 13. Bd2! Qxb2?? 14. Rfb1 Qxc2 15. Ra2, 1-0. (Post #12) I still like White. It's true that Black has caught up in development, but White has two bishops basically for free, and he doesn't have to defend the b2-pawn. Basically, he's just better. 13. Be3!? Qxb2 14. Na4 also gives White good compensation.
chesster3145 wrote:
@Xplayer: 13. Bd2! Qxb2?? 14. Rfb1 Qxc2 15. Ra2, 1-0. (Post #12) I still like White.
If white plays 13. Bd2, I wouldn't take on b2 with the Black queen.
The reason why is because I feel the bishop on d2 is on a very poor square.
I would gain satsifaction knowing you placed your bishop in an awkward position.
Of course white is doing this because the Black queen developed to b6 which takes more control of the dark squares + hits b2 as a side bonus.
chesster3145 wrote:
@Xplayer: 13. Be3!? Qxb2 14. Na4 also gives White good compensation.
Against 13.Be3, I think I would take on b2 in that position.
The bishop on e3 is better placed. However, it doesn't address any concerns to the b2 pawn.
I think taking on b2 would be ideal since it would win a pawn + hit the knight on c3.
Against 14.Na4, I think black should consider the queen trade.
Well Black does have the option of keeping the queens on the board.
However, It doesn't feel as forcing.
Maybe 14...Qb5 which hits the knight and the queen.
Amazing!
I did my above analysis on my own with out the help of an engine believe it or not.
It seemed logical for me seeing how the position was being played out.
Today, I felt like seeing what an engine thought about my analysis.
Apparently, The engine agrees with me lol.
I inserted the move 9.a3.
The engine I used didn't want to play 9.a3. It wanted to play 9.h3 which I believe is best move indeed.
I forced it to play 9.a3
The move it wanted to play next was 9...Nc6 hitting the knight on d4.
The move it suggested for white was to retreat the knight on d4 to f3 with the move 10.Nf3
At this point the engine, The engine believe black was equal with the move 10...Bg4!
Placing the bishop on the square which white didn't defend at move 9!
Amazing!
For fun, I wanted to see what the engine thought about my continuation.
Instead of playing the move 9...Nc6 like the engine recommended.
I forced it to play the move 9...Bg4.
The best move for white after 9...Bg4 is 10.f3 blocking the LSB.
lol
What a sad move to play as white.
Your top move against my random bishop annoyance is f3?
If you find f3, The position is evaluated at 0.20.
What a sad move followed by a sad evaluation!
If you don't play f3, The engine thinks the evaluatoin is equal or in blacks favor.
I than felt like testing even further!
I wanted to see how the "engine" felt about me giving white the bishop pair in the below position:
The evulation is 0 if black plays the move 12...Rc8.
LOL
Can you believe that?
It supports my idea of giving white the bishop pair!
Woooooo Hoooooo! I told you! LOL
People told me giving up the bishop pair was dubious!
I told you it all! It make logical sense!
Black doesn't want to retreat because it gives white a tempo back!
In addition, The line black is playing is based on trying to control the dark center squares!
The black light square bishop can't help fight on the dark squares.
Thus, black gets rid of the light square bishop by trading it off with a piece white has that can attack on the dark squares.
The knight on e2 is hitting the dark d4 square!
Once I get rid of it. Black has more control on the dark squares.
The dark bishop on g7 hits e5 + d4.
The knight on c6 hits e5 + d4.
The pawn on d6 is hitting e5.
Black has a second knight which can go to d7 to reroute to e5!
Notice how black has more pieces which can hit dark squares than white does!
Black is zoomed into the dark squares!
Even with the bishop pair, white will have problems dealing with this grip black has!
Well of course this got me more excited.
I felt like testing out what the engine thought about 12...Qb6.
In the above position, The engine found 2 moves for white.
The "mysterious" rook moves!
13.Rb1 or 13.Rd1
The evaluation is 0.20 if white finds either 1 of these moves.
I am very pleased with myself.
The moves I played with black were very logical!
I had a rythme going with the black pieces.
The engine saw it and I am very happy about it.
I believe you shouldn't allow the move 9...Bg4.
Letting black play this move doesn't help white at all!
If white has to play f3 as his best move, White should reconsider his moves!
You know black is going to play a piece to g4!
You have to know this!
How do you know?
When you have a pawn on g2 it gives the f3 + h3 squares 100% support!
Those squares are protected by your g2 pawn!
When you play a fianchetto! or g3 system.
What are you doing?
You are moving your g2 to pawn to g3! You have just weakned 2 squares!
The f3 + h3 squares have lost its support!
What happen to the support? It is gone now!
The move Bg4 hits both f3 + h3.
It is hitting the weak squares which you have left behind!
You made a pawn push! Every pawn push leaves weak squares behind!
The move 9.h3 is a prevention move!
All good chess players attack the weakness to win!
You know this!
A good chess player knows what its opponent will do!
A great chess player takes counter measures!
The move 9.h3 is a counter measure.
Very powerful move this little h3 move.
Don't underestimate such a move.
There is no emergency for white to play 9.a3. Look at the below position:
- Blacks knight isn't even on c6.
The move a3 defends the b4 square; however, there is absolutely no piece that black controls that can even reach that square.
- Black bishop on g7 is hitting a lot of pieces on the a1 to h8 diagnol.
The move a3 can't even prepare a queen side expansion with the pawn b4 in this position yet.
The reason why is because the black bishop has to many targets on the dark squares!
The rook on a1, knight on c3, knight on d4 look at all the pieces it can attack!
It still doesn't make any logical sense to play a3 at move 9.
I believe the move 9.a3 is helping black in this position.
"The final the final uh what's the word The final form of the Najdorf refutation"
a3 is a newer line that most sicilian players don't know. that's all
I think 6.a3 was ment on move 6 and not on move 9 and also it was not ment to play g3.
I saw Karjakin playing this moves once and I had never seen it before. I think the idea is 6.a3 e5 7.Nf3 h6 ( to avoid Bg5 and extra controle over d5 ) 8.Bc4 ( so not g3 and Bg2 but to c4 and controle d5 and have a square on a2 to retreat to and at the same time b5 and then b4 hit the knight and thus pawn on e4 is prevented. 8...Be7 and white can castle or play Be3 or something like this.