A waiting move in the Sicilian

I said that you claimed white could make it look silly with a certain plan. In my post #38, this was the assumption I made and I was never corrected.

In your post #36, I thought you were trying to say that 4...Bg4 didn't accomplish much because after 5.h3, 5...Bxf3 was 'good for white' and 5...Bh5 'simply lost a tempo.' In post #40, you said explicitly that if the bishop ends up on g6 "black has spent 3 tempi and achieves nothing valuable."

It is hard for me to understand what you are saying, but it seemed a reasonable conclusion that these comments you were making were meant to undermine the move 4...Bg4.

Aha!

You think that 4.h3 is the questionable move, right? You were trying to say that, since 4...Bg4 isn't that dangerous, white could be doing something more productive on move 4. Is that right?

Well, two that come to mind are the QGD and the closed Spanish, especially the exchange variations. If you want to do some more research into this, you could check out these databases:

Chess.com database

Shredder chess database

Chessgames.com database

365 Chess database

Like I said originally, I think 4.h3 is a good move. It seems to fit in with white's plan of dominating the center with c3 and d4. It avoids the pin and keeps an active knight on f3.

I play the QID Petrosian system as white, which employs a similar plan to try to get a big center.

However, I don't hold the 'delayed Alapin' in nearly the same regard as the QID Petrosian. The Petrosian system seems to work because black doesn't yet have a way to exploit the tempo 4.a3 provides. The move 3.c3 in this opening already seems like too crude of a move, and it seems that, by this point, black does have a way to exploit the tempo that 4.h3 provides.

If white plays 4.Bd3 or 4.Qc2 right away to try to guard the e-pawn and prepare the d2-d4 advance, black has 4...Bg4 and we can see something like my post #46. If white takes the time to play 4.h3, then black can play 4...Nc6 and after 5.Bd3 play 5...d5. Either way, white doesn't really get to play d4 for free. This just seems like too crude of an attempt to set up a big center.

Well, I kind of already answered that. The Petrosian system is 4.a3.

Yes, it is simply to avoid the Bb4 pin so Nc3 can be played and white can dominate the center. If black simply develops say 4...Be7 and 5...0-0 or something, white can just play e4 and d5 and roll right over black. That is why the most popular response is to immediately challenge the center with 4...Bb7 and 5...d5.

Oh, okay.

Remember, I never said this is a drawish opening. In fact, it is remarkably aggressive for a Queen's pawn opening with decisive results very common. So, this isn't considered 'drawish,' but it is considered the main line:

Position after Qa5 is good for black. Thanks!

Please! Stop squabbling!  Is that position that important?  I do not even play this line anymore. 

I'm sure they answered your question by now.

First:

Yes, this is a rather critical line.

Second:

It isn't really about you. You asked a good question to start things off, but it doesn't really matter anymore how you or I or anyone feels about the line. This is just a place for them to talk about a line that they feel is important to their chess.

If this site was set up better, and a greater percentage of members were tournament standard, there would be a place to talk about this sort of thing where a lot of good input could be given and decisions could be made about the lines. As it is, this is where they have to talk about this stuff.