Why not Bd3 in the Sicilian Najdorf?

This keeps coming up in my games and I don't know why Stockfish shows Be3 and not Bd3. Bd3 zeros in on the black king (h7 square). It protects the center e4 pawn. It also gives white a chance to castle. Be3 on the other hand does the opposite. Unless black castles long, white has to make one more move to castle. 

It blocks the only semi-open file for White and shields Black's weakness, d6.

There is no reason behind the move.  In the Najdorf, h7 is rarely the issue.  The weakness in the Najdorf is the e6-pawn.

Direct attacks on the king in the Najdorf are more rare than in other openings, like the Dragon.

h7-attacks tend to occur more in defenses where Black does not advance his Kingside pawns, like the Colle, French, Nimzo-Indian, etc.

White has NUMEROUS options that are all better than 6.Bd3.  They include:

A) 6.Bg5

B) 6.Be3

C) 6.Be2

D) 6.Bc4

E) 6.f4

F) 6.g3

G) 6.h3

H) 6.Nb3

I) 6.Rg1

All 9 of these moves are theoretically better than 6.Bd3.

Remember, theoretical and statistical are not the same thing, so do not start spouting that one of the 9 responses I gave is worse than 6.Bd3 statistically.

6.Bd3 is definitely not the best move. It isn't horrible or anything, but it's not going to give White anything. Black has numerous moves to get easy equality, such as Nc6, challenging the now undefended knight on d4, or g6, entering a Dragadorf where Bd3 is completely useless. Also, adding to @ThrillerFan 's list, I believe 6.h4, as played by Pragganandhaa, 6.a4 (I believe Caruana played it a while back), 6.f3, transposing to an English Attack, 6.a3, 6.Qf3, 6.Qe2, and 6.Qd3 all are better/equal to Bd3. In fact, according to the database, in order to find a move that scores worse than Bd3, you have to go to the 18th most popular move g4, which hangs a pawn outright. Generally the only Sicilian where Bd3 is good early is the Kan, where 5.Bd3 (defending the pawn and often intending a Maroczy Bind with c4) is considered to be the best move.

I also recently wrote an article which shows how Black can comfortably equalize (and more at times) against 6.Bd3 in the Dragon. Against Bd3 in the Najdorf you could play the sideline I discuss in Nbd7. Here it is:https://www.chess.com/blog/FizzyBand/equalizing-as-black-in-the-6-bd3-dragon

Considering e4 is often a target in open sicilians, Bd3 perfectly makes sense...

This is a rather fresh variation compared to big lines, and some top players tried it recently...

Certainly not as dubious/bad as some claim above.

<deleted> reason...blocked by OP

Troll Alert

Keeps starting forums asking questions about how to support some weak Stockfish moves. When you show this person anything that makes sense, starts to argue irrelevant nonsense about something else included in the forum being the only topic allowed for discussion.

You'll be blocked and likely not even a thank you for your time/opinion.

"double step" and "knights on the rim" forums are prime examples

*

yeah, black only has a 50% winning percentage vs whites 12.5%...whats not to like?

The main target for blacks is the e4 pawn so 6.Bd3 make perfect sense and it can be a good surprise against the Najdorf. There is a move order even trickier which is 6.Be3; Ng4 7.Bg5; h6 8.Bc1; Nf6 9.Bd3! and whites can use h7-h6 later.

deleted this

Nice

The sample size in that database was 8. White won once in 1987.

If you are going to argue that doesnt count, Id agree...even though the rating expectation favored black slightly.

But neither is posting some game or saying one person played it once in 3 bazillion games thats it must be solid.

Isn't 6. Bd3 a main line against a lot of 2... e6 Sicilians? If black plays e6 he will simply enter mainlines.  

It seems to me like 6. .... e5 blocking white's bishop with his own pawn is a clear reason why white doesn't play this too often. 

The two super gm games posted are hardly great ambassadors for the opening, Polgar pulls her Nd4 knight back to f3, loses her bishop pair and barely ends up scraping a draw. Motylev loses the exchange almost straight out of the opening in what looks like a 1600 sequence and succumbs soon after. 

unfollowed after deleted

Almost every legal move has been played at the highest level by White against the Najdorf on move 6--and probably some illegal ones as well! Bd3 does break the connection between the Queen and the Nd4, so if Black plays an early Nc6, White will have to exchange or retreat

I have played against 6 bd3 and the first instance i tried to exploit this loose nd4 later with nc6 gaining a tempo. After researching, i found I think a better way to play, which is suggested in a book by Djonknas, and that is to target bd3 and nd4 by playing Nbd7, and Bg7, and later Nc5. The advantage of playing this way is it blunts bd3 in the process. It is technically a Dragon type of sicilian where black has played the slow a6, but also white has played the clumsy bd3, which as far as I know from having studied and played the Dragon, does not seem to fit with any standard white plan vs the Dragon pawn structure.

That makes sense

u underestimate this Bd3 on general thoughts.

We could argue Be2 is weak because bad diagonal, passive, etc... While it is a main line since ages...

Same for f3, weakening kingside, g3 and h3 too slow, etc...

Chess is not so simple...

Here is a GM analysis of 6.Bd3 (it's in French) :

https://youtu.be/qqSeLMQiWD

The analysis start at 10 min of the video. 

Bd3 has become a bit trendy, especially Karjakin as well as other top players played it recently.

I guess the main point behind it is that after e5 you can retreat the knight to e2 without blocking your bishop and later bring it to g3.

After the typical Nd5 + exd5 it leads to a typical Najdorf / Sveshnikov structure where the Bishop on d3 makes some sense and the knight ends up on g3 instead of b3 or c3 as in other lines. Not super exciting but for sure playable.

The polar bear gambit