dom - I agree with you in your desire to avoid the attack, but I´m not sure I want to have this type of suffering as Black - I looked at a different type of suffering last night with 11...Bb4 12.Bd3 f6!? 13.exf6 Qxf6 thinking that in the endgame after ...Bxc3 at least there are the doubled isolated pawns to compensate for Whites 2 bishops - the more I looked though I didnt like it much, although I prefer this line to your one in that at least a lot of accuracy is required of White to exploit his 2 bishops. Still, at least it is a line where Black doesnt get checkmated

I also briefly looked at 11...b6 but Watson only gives 12Nce2 for White, whereas the direct 12.h4! is what seems like the biggest worry is. I looked at some lines here and didnt fancy them, but not in enough depth.

At this point I am veering towards 11...Bb4 Smyslov_Fan what do you think? Maybe we need another day to consider if OstapBender doesnt object  

I haven't thought about this much, but first (admittedly vague) impressions are that ...Be7 and ...Bb4 (especially) look a bit dangerous for Black based on lines given so far whereas ...b6 looks safer but seems to hand White a nagging edge without requiring him to take any serious risks.  On the other hand, ...Be7 and ...Bb4 (again, especially) seem to give Black a lot more scope for creative play and potential improvement on published lines.  Also, they seem to require White to take more risks to keep winning chances alive.

I'd probably have ...b6 as my first choice at the moment, but would be looking pretty hard to make one of the other moves playable (I have more hope for ...Be7 at the moment).

I've barely looked at ...Bxe3 at all, but it's difficult for me to believe that this can be made into a viable choice.

On a personal note, I'm delighted to see the discussion (and turmoil!) being caused by 11.Nb3 - I came so close to playing more conventionally with 11.Qf2!  

BTW:  one of the main reasons for playing 13.Bd3 Nb6 is to protect against White's threatened f4-f5.  Since it doesn't do that, perhaps Black needs to rethink his defense.  That's why I'm looking at alternatives as early as move 13 in the 12...Bb4 line.

Ok, 

I agree too.  I've done a bit of analysis trying to make 11...Bxe3 and 12...f6 work, but it just doesn't. 

11...Be7 looks bad too.


That leaves 11...Bb4 and  11...b6.

Khalifman's analysis of 11...Bb4 doesn't take into account Anand's serious improvement, 13.Rhf1.  Yes, the game was "only" a draw, but I'm pretty sure that White will start winning with this idea.  Also, Black doesn't have a very good solution to 12.g4 unless there's something buried in Khalifman's analysis.

I'm beginning to suspect that 13...Nb6, which looks natural, may be the culprit here.  Perhaps Black needs to activate the B on c8 before he activates his knights.

There have been a few games since Khalifman's book, so some of his ideas may have already been tested.  BadPritt,  I'll definitely take you up on your offer to see how Khalifman responds to some of my analysis.

(Sorry, in an earlier version I asked Keano instead of BadPritt to help with the analysis.  Of course, I appreciate your help too, Keano!)

Well, I guess it's time for me to say something again! Khalifman only gives the four alternatives allready mentioned, eg 11)...Bxe3, 11)...b6, 11)...Be7 and 11)...Bb4.

After 11)...Bxe3 he sees white getting a clear advantage in all lines, but he doesn't mention 12) Qxe3 f6. Instead after 12)...b6 13)h4 he does mention 13)...f6 14) exf6 Nxf6 15) h5 b5 16) h6 g6 17) Be2  b4 18) Na4 e5 19) fxe5 Re8 20) Qc5 Ne5 21) Nb6 giving white the better game.

After 11)...b6 he is following Nijboer-Glek 2001, where 18)...Rxc6 instead of 18)...Bxc6 may have kept white's advantage to only +=.

After 11)...Be7 he gives Nijboer-Stellwagen 2002 with the amazing sacrifice of the knight at a4 after 19) Bd4!! This seems to be winning in all variations.

Finally after 11)...Bb4 he bases his recommended line again on games by Nijboer, eg Nijboer-Glek 2003 and Nijboer-Sielicki 2001. Most important however is his improvement on another game Nijboer-Stellwagen 2002, which went  12) Bd3 b5 13) g4 Nb6 14) Qf2 Nc4 150 Ne4 Be7 and now not 16) g5 which ended peacefully after 26 moves, but 16) Bc5!? He gives a lot of variations all leading to a clear advantage for white, except for 16)...Bxc5 17) Nexc5 Nb4 18) Kb1 a5 19) Rhe1 a4 20) Nd4 a3 21) b3 Nb2 22) Rd2 Qb6 23) Nf3 Ra7 24) c3 N2xd3 25) Nxd3 Qxf2 26) Nxf2 Nc6 27) Nd4 Nxd4 28) Rxd4 Rc7 29) Kc2 Bb7 30) Re3 Rfc8 31) g5! Kf8 32) h4 += 
I guess black has to search for an improvement somewhere in this line, but if there are any questions feel free to ask. Khalifman may have the answer!

By the way, this latter line clearly shows how much work these guys at Chess-stars put into their books. At critical points they readily give you improvements with a lot of analysis . I think this should be the standard for any book on openings!
I allso see that Semkov is actively having contact with readers of "The safest sicilian" via the Chesspublishing forum. That is great! 

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 07/25/06 at 23:17:23:

No worries.  I have plenty to keep me occupied in my other game... 

In that game, I seem to have misplaced my attack.   If anyone is interested, you can pick up the trail right right around here: http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1151879306/141#141

dom wrote on 07/25/06 at 19:03:25:


Dom in this ...f6 idea I am tempted to look at the Qh3 line but maybe the simplest procedure is 13.exf6 Nxf6 14.g3! when I claim an enduring advantage - seems like the White position is more comfortable to handle

Hmm. OK. maybe you're all right.

Nijboer's a 2580 GM by the way, not a 'master'.