I just found this game by Simon Williams in which he plays 9…Nc6, a move I wouldn’t normally expect to see in this position.  I’m away from my copy of his book on the Classical Dutch at the moment and so can’t check what Williams himself says about the move – can anyone enlighten me, as I thought it was generally frowned upon to play …Nc6 if White can answer with the d5 pawn advance.  I can see that it isn’t really bad for Black, by any means, and in this game 10.d5 wasn’t even played as it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere – Shirov preferred 10.e4 which does look better – but I don’t remember the theory of this line, and whenever I’ve played it as Black I’ve always found that White recaptures on c3 with the Queen, so I haven’t really looked at this.  My strategic understanding is limited, so what’s Black aiming for with 9…Nc6 here, rather than, say, 9…Bf6 or 9…a5 for example? Thanks for helping.




[Event "Wijk aan Zee"]
[Site "Birmingham ENG"]
[Date "2006.01.15"]
[EventDate "2005.10.22"]
[Round "6"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "A Shirov"]
[Black "Si Williams"]
[ECO "A96"]
[WhiteElo "2710"]
[BlackElo "2452"]
[PlyCount "66"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. Nc3 Ne4 8.
Qc2 Nxc3 9. bxc3 Nc6 10. e4 e5 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Rb1 a6 13. Rd1 Qe8 14. Rd5
Be6 15. Rxb7 Bxd5 16. cxd5 Na5 17. Rb1 Nc4 18. exf5 Bf6 19. Nd2 Nd6 20. c4
Qh5 21. c5 Qxf5 22. Qxf5 Nxf5 23. d6 cxd6 24. Bd5+ Kh8 25. Bxa8 Rxa8 26. g4
Nd4 27. cxd6 Bg5 28. Kf1 Rc8 29. d7 Rd8 30. Nc4 Bxc1 31. Rxc1 Kg8 32. Nxe5
Kf8 33. Rd1 1-0