I went through my book with 100 some odd pages with different varitians of the sicilian alone. Unless my book is missing something I don't think it's a known variation. Is it possible it's a transposition into another opening? I don't know, the book I have is pretty comprehensive. It doesn't seem to recognize 3... Nf6
I have a database with over 10,000 grandmaster games. I found 28 games that have this position, but all transpose into a known line of the Sicilian. I found 3 Dragons, 4 Richter-Rauzer, 2 Scheveningen and the rest are Najdorfs.
Perhaps you can post the Shirov game where you saw it?
Recently, I've been experimenting with a new variation of the Sicilian. Seen it used by Alexei Shirov before. It goes like this...
1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 d6
(still standard sicilian here)
3.d4 Nf6!?
(This is a new line for me)
Usually, Black goes for
3. ... cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 a6(Najdorf Variation)
My question is this...after 3.d4 Nf6, what should I do in case White does dxc5 or Bb5?
Oh yeah, and if anyone knows the name of this variation let me know ok?
Thanks
-Mark-