Sicilian Rossolimo clearly explained for intermediate players?

A while ago I switched from the Dragon to the Accelerated Dragon. In the normal Dragon which is a 2...d6 Sicilian, White can play an anti-Sicilian called the Moscow variation with 3.Bb5+ which I never found particularly troublesome to play against. With the Accelerated Dragon which is a 2...Nc6 SIcilian I find the similar but different 3.Bb5 here, the so called Rossolimo, to be much harder to play against.

Immediately this move looks ridiculous as if White captures on c6 he gives Black the bishop pair and converts a b-pawn to a c-pawn, which strengthens Black's center. But I guess White wants to create a closed position where knights are stronger than bishops and play against the c pawns? Where's a good, simple, and clear expanation for what's going on and what I should be doing from the Black side? What third move should I even use and what are the differences? I watched Alexei Shirov's Chessbase DVD about his best games in the Rossolimo and on this matter he just said "Black has four decent third moves and all are on the sixth rank" (g6 Nf6 e6 d6) but also said he was unsure which was best. Also Shirov's DVD seems geared towards more advanced players and I just want something that lays things out more simply.

GM Miguel Illescas: "I always thought, if the Ruy López is so good, the Rossolimo bust be pretty good too".

@Fiveofswords Ah, so maybe that's why the main line is for Black to play g6 and fianchetto the dark square bishop, to regain some of the control of d4 and e5? But also, if the bishop does take and Black recaptures with the b pawn, doesn't this improve Black's control of the center by giving them an extra c-pawn and more control of squares on the d-file? Also as I understand it in the Ruy Lopez Black has a pawn on e5 so the bishop on b5 sets up in some positions a concrete threat to take the e5 pawn, whereas here it doesn't. And in regards to d4, the c5 pawn is already controlling that and to play d4 wouldn't White open the position for Black's bishop pair?

@Pulpofeira The Rossolimo is good, supposedly even Sveshnikov himself said it's the best move for White after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6. Though I wonder if maybe I'm overestimating it since in the few games I've had against it I didn't know anything about it yet. The problem is that if your opponent doesn't play a 2...Nc6 Sicilian. What if they play a 2...e6 Sicilian, or 2...d6 Sicilian, where you can try the Moscow variation, but Shirov was absolutely scathing about the Moscow saying that Chessbase had asked him to do a DVD on it but he refused because it's a theoretical draw and mentioning a game where Wesley So played it against him as White and how after the game he lectured So about what a bad opening it was, and that he hoped So would fight for a win as White in the future.

This is correct.  White wants to construct a classical center with pawns on e4 and d4.  By pinning the Knight, he's removing a defender of d4.  Often White will continue with c3 and d4, as in the Alapin variation.  If Black plays cxd4, White can take back with cxd4 and have his two pawns in the center.  Of course, depending on how Black responds, White may not be able to achieve this.

White can choose to trade the Bishop for the Knight on c6 immediately and give up the Bishop pair in exchange for damaging Black's pawn structure, but he doesn't have to.  In fact, that's not the main line.

You'll probably find more books and videos written from White's perspective than Black's, so I'd recommend checking out those resources to understand the basic plans.  You could also play through some games.  Some of the main GM's who play the Rossolimo include Rossolimo (of course), Rublevsky, Oral and Morozevich.

Also, while Shriov is a great player, his opinion about the Moscow variation is by no means universal.  A number of strong GM's play it and win with it.  As with most things, opinions vary.

Thanks for the info guys.

I wonder who at master level has the best results playing the Rossolimo from the Black side.

According to 365chess.com database, as black these players faced the Rossolimo most frequently:

Sveshnikov 96 games

Moiseenko 87 games

Radjabov 81 games

I would recommend looking at Radjabov games as he has wins against the best opponents (Svidler, Karjakin, Caruana) and the games are fairly recent.

Thanks for that. From the games I've looked at so far these three grandmasters seem to prefer 3...e6. 

That's also what GM Ben Finegold said he used in a video I managed to find.

Do you play any of the 2...Nc6 Sicilians as Black, and if so, what do you use against the Rossolimo and why?

When taking back with ...bxc6 you have to watch out you don't end up with a bad sort of reversed Nimzo-indian structure. I think taking back ...dxc6, which does more for your development, is safer.

Tony Rotella advocates 3...Nf6 in his recent book "The Killer Sicilian", and I like the look of it and I'm playing that now. 4.Nc3 g6 5.e5 Ng4 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.h3 Nh6 8.g4 Bg7 9.d3 0-0 is the critical line; black's Nh6 is out of play for now, but black has the two bishops and white has weaknesses on the kingside.

Checking the chesstempo.com database, the 4 options and scores for games between 2200+ rated players:

3..g6, 7568 games, 40.1%/37%/22.9%

3..d6, 4599 games, 31.3%/41.1%/27.6%

3..e6, 4036 games, 34.3%/37%/28.7%

3..Nf6, 1045 games, 38.2%/35.8%/26%

As you can see, 3..g6 is most played but have the worse score statistically, especially if white respond with the immediate 4.Bxc6 (44%/36.1%/19.9%). In my personal opinion g6 does look somewhat slow and would not be my choice in any case.

3..Nf6 I thought that wouldn't be so good because of 4. e5 Nd5 which white also score quite heavily. But if instead the mainline is played (4. Nc3 Qc7 5.0-0 Nd4), it looks very tricky

As for between d6 or e6, I would prefer e6 because if I intended to play a d6 setup I would have played 2..d6 instead. The knight on c6 fits most e6 setups but seems odd in a d6 setup. In a d6 sicilian the knight on b8 often doesn't move until much later, and it might go to d7 instead.

3...e6 makes a lot of sense to me. Knight maneover Nge7-g6 is possible also preparing for eventual ...e5

Yeah I had noticed e6 scored better too. I just wish there was more instructional material out there about it from the Black side aside from Finegold's video. I guess I'll just have to use resources written from the White side.

Thanks Pavel. I've known that was an option but a few things keep me from using that move order. The first is I think the Rossolimo is an interesting opening. One of the first things I learned about chess strategy is "the bishop pair is a good thing" yet, here's an opening where the player as White spends a tempo to give up the bishop pair very soon. An interesting battle then takes place with each side trying to create a position favorable for their knight or bishop pair. I'm even looking into playing the Rossolimo a tempo dpwn against the English defense. That is 1.c4 e5 and now if 2.Nc3 then Bb4. Also I've been meaning to test out the Kalashnikov one day (I'm not one of those people who has a million openings against 1.e4 it's pretty much just going to be Accelerated Dragon and the Kalashnikov for me) and anyway in the Kalashnikov there is no such move order to avoid the Rossolimo, so might as well learn a little about what to do against it. I don't mind studying the games of people like Radjabov either. Finally, doesn't the Hyperaccelerated Dragon have it's own extra theory for if the queen captures on d4?

In this video www.chess.com/video/player/winning-with-the-quotno-counterplayquot-strategy Grandmaster Leonid Kritz seems to convey that the main idea of the Rossolimo is to damage Black's pawn structure and that the bishop pair isn't worth anything as long as White keeps the position closed, so although perhaps this indirect central control you're talking about could be a secondary idea of the opening I don't know if it's the main idea. The position isn't exactly the same as a Ruy Lopez, there must be some important differences.

Thanks for sharing your insight on this matter FiveofSwords, we're lucky to have such a strong player as you on this forum to weigh in on things like this.

To me doubled pawns are almost an advantage because next to the doubled pawns is an open file, which the rooks can use to infiltrate the enemy camp and do "marauding".

Also I suppose the plans with d4 in the Rossolimo are when White doesn't exchange the bishop. Otherwise it seems d4 would only help open the position.