Ok thanks for your response. However this is just common sense, which *concrete* plan would you recommend for black?
Najdorf 6.h4 !?
Sort:
The move h4 makes no sense. It doesn't do anything for white, and just gives black time to develop pieces.
If you want a sideline to use against the Najdorf that actually does something, try 6.Rg1 instead of h4 - your idea is to push g4-g5 and gain space on the kingside, and threaten a kingside attack is black castles (or doesn't castle!)
alexm2310 wrote:
Well, e5 to begin with. Be7, 0-0, Nc6, Be6. Not in that exact order necessarily. Whites position is playable so it's not like these normal developing moves will win you the game
Ok that's the obvious game plan. But then, according to Stockfish 8, white will be able to launch a devastating kingside assault.
Guess I am just surprised there has not been any top GM so far to get on top of this. Especially since the newest move here was 6.a3 (of all moves)
6 h4,'s premature. I think Black just goes ...e5, ...Be7, ...Be6 and ...d5. If you play, say, Be3/Qd2/0-0-0 to dissuade this, ...a5-a4 is probably a decent plan - it's an English Attack with the overly commital h2-h4 played.
Cherub_Enjel wrote:
The move h4 makes no sense. It doesn't do anything for white, and just gives black time to develop pieces.
If you want a sideline to use against the Najdorf that actually does something, try 6.Rg1 instead of h4 - your idea is to push g4-g5 and gain space on the kingside, and threaten a kingside attack is black castles (or doesn't castle!)
Yes. Exactly.
mln0 wrote:
6 h4,'s premature. I think Black just goes ...e5, ...Be7, ...Be6 and ...d5. If you play, say, Be3/Qd2/0-0-0 to dissuade this, ...a5-a4 is probably a decent plan - it's an English Attack with the overly commital h2-h4 played.
Yes that leads to a strong black game. The other reply worth thinking about is 6. ... Nc6
Ok I see now 6.h4 is premature. But what about 6.Be3?
Ok but what would you play against an immediate 6...Ng4?
alexm2310 wrote:
Probably Bg5. If h6, then Bh4. I'm not worried about g5 forcing Bg3. If the bishop isn't kicked then I'd probably kick blacks knight and later bring the bishop back to e3. For example, 7.. Nc6 8. h3 Nc6 9. Qd2.
Note that 8. h3 h6?? doesn't work because after 9. hxg4, blacks h pawn is pinned
Note that 8. h3 h6?? doesn't work because after 9. hxg4, blacks h pawn is pinned
It seems that after 8.Bh4 g5 it might get unneccessarily complicated. So I was thinking, would it be an idea to play 8.Bc1 then after 8...Nf6 9.Be2 you've reached the opocensky variation, only now black has played h6. Would this be an additional weakness?
You mustn't be worried about "excessively complicated" playing Sicilian. It is rather the whole point.
Impractical wrote:
You mustn't be worried about "excessively complicated" playing Sicilian. It is rather the whole point.
Ain't that the truth
Personally I don't think h6 gives white extra chances.
All in all I think I choose 6.Rg1.
Not to start the discussion all over again, but what about 6.a4? For example 6.a4 e5 7.Nf3 is this OK?
(1) We've given you all the reasonable variations and ideas. You just need to pick one of them - the differences that you mentioned are marginal.
(2) Looking at your games - no offense, but a slight edge or not for white is going to decide 0 of your games if you played a million of them - hanging pieces, counting errors, and simple tactical mistakes are what you need to worry about.
(3) Bottom line - everything single variation that you've/we've mentioned here is OK at your level. Not that I believe you should be playing the Najdorf anytime below master level, but OK in the sense that it will not decide a single game you play.
For example, do you really think that your specific Sicilian white variation decided this game? Or was it hanging a pawn in the opening and losing not one, but two pieces to 2-move tactics? All in under 20 moves
https://www.chess.com/live/game/1963622595?username=BluemanIsBack
I'm just saying that there are some things in chess that just don't matter, and the differences between all these variations falls into that.
It's more of an academic interest. Please answer the question 🤓
Hi folks,
Could this be something? I analyzed 6...e5 and 6...Nc6 deeply. It seems white gets some initiative. Or does black have a good plan here? Anyway 6.h4 doesn't seem worse than white's other moves, like Bg5, g3, a3, h3 etc.