I am rather proud to have correctly predicted the return of
6.Bg5 over a year ago (I think) on this very forum, much to the scepticism of Semprun and others.
As I said back then that the decline of
6.Bg5 was more due to fashion than anything else, as players continued to investigate fresh fertile ground like the English attack as a universal weapon against the Sicilian defence. Now that the
6.Be3 hysteria has begun to wane a bit, players are re-discovering what I already new, that is
6.Bg5 is still an extremely dangerous and strong move that is far from being played out.
I totally disagree that
6.Bg5 is unsuitable for correspondence play, quite the opposite in fact. I believe that a strong creative player with a powerful chess engine would be deadly with this line in correspondence play.
In an interview on WCN, that is when there was a WCN, Larry Christiansen in an interview noted that there was a computer on ICC that was virtually invincible with 6.Bg5 as White, especially against PP practitioners, Human and Computer opposition alike.
The fact is that the PP is so complex and engines so powerful now as to render most of the ancient analysis on this variation virtually obsolete. Nowadays, particularly in sharp lines like the PP everything must be re-checked with a a fine toothed comb.
Much has been made of how well computers defend bad positions, but in truth when guided they are just as ruthless in attack.
I wonder what Semprun and some of the others who proclaimed
6.Bg5 a dead fossil must be thinking now.
Anyway I will try not to say I told ya so.
Toppy