Isn't Black in trouble after 7 Ncb5?
Sicilian Bc5. Why have I never seen this?
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Possibly. Black doesn't have to take the pawn though, and Game Explorer rates white and black wins about equal after Ncb5.
Though it's only out of 5 or 6 games.
It's the Paulsen-Basman defence. Never had to play against it though. I think that 5. Nb3 is the regular continuation for white.
The usual response to Bc5 in the sicilian is Nb3, when black has to either move his dark-squared bishop back to e7/f8 (which is basically a waste of two tempi) or move it to b6, when a future Qg4 by white, attacking g7, is the most agressive way to try to show the drawbacks of moving the dark-squared bishop out early.
Alphastar18 wrote:
The usual response to Bc5 in the sicilian is Nb3, when black has to either move his dark-squared bishop back to e7/f8 (which is basically a waste of two tempi) or move it to b6, when a future Qg4 by white, attacking g7, is the most agressive way to try to show the drawbacks of moving the dark-squared bishop out early.
Right you are. Bb6 and black and white both seem to do well (again according to game explorer).
I still find it strange that I've never encountered it before. It's also not even mentioned in "Understanding the Chess Openings".
Here's a Morphy game with the opening:
This game might be a good study. Playing Qg4 to take on g7 might be critical, but it does give black what he wants - lots of pressure on the kingside. White's setup is not the best either though - improvements are 12. Be3, 16. c3 and 21. e5? was a mistake that could've cost white the draw (21. g3 was necessary).
GM Lobron missed a win in timetrouble with 21. ..Rfh6! and only after forcing the weakening 22. h3 is 22. ..Rg6! winning because of the fatal threat of Nxh3.
Bc5 is very strong for black. Two of the opening db's show nearly equal winning % for black and white. I have not faced it before too but will try it for sure in my next game.
I don't play the Sicilian but I was thinking about trying this to throw white off. There's always the odd one who might play the Alapin or the closed sicilian or something though.
Qxb2 is like a "poisoned pawn" variation. I always try to do this, but my opponents never seem to cooperate with the idea... 
Jan 2, 2010
0
#13
rustygecko wrote:
This is the Basman-Sale variation, and I'm currently playing in a thematic tournament on ficgs.com dedicated to the late Marc Lacrosse who did a lot of research on it (and once beat Anand using it in a simul). He used to have an excellent section of his website (http://users.skynet.be/mlcc/chessbazaar/) dedicated to it - unfortunately now it seems that only bits of his research can be accessed via archive.org (although today I am also having difficulty with that).
Mark Lacrosse died? I played vs. him in France a couple years ago. He was not very old, was he?
Yeah, Nb3 wins a tempo on the bishop, and if ...Bb6 the weak dark squares probably override the activity of the bishop in this opening. Maybe black could try ...Bf8!?, since the knight did move away from d4 after all, and it could confuse the opponent.
I started playing this line half a year ago. Actually there is an excellent german book on this titled "Sizilianisch für Müßiggänger". Most players seem to be confused after 5. ... Bc5. In a recent match in german Kreisklasse my opponent took 30 minutes for the first 8 moves. Unfortunately he found the best moves on the board:
Anyway, I think this opening gives black good practical chances against less well prepared opponents. There is a lot to do wrong for white plus it brings players out of their opening knowledge early.
So today I borrowed my brothers Iphone and downloaded the chess.com Iphone app and Shredder.
I set Shredder to around 2100 (It plays like an idiot anywhere below 2000) and played white against the sicilian defense. I confidently pushed to d4 and the response shredder chose shocked me.
As an e4 player I face the sicilian in nearly 50% of my games as white, so why have I never seen this before? Game explorer says it's a strong option and it certainly surprised me.