Quote:Regardless of this, I think 9...Qa5 is actually quite a challenging move, asking White to justify 9.Nh4 which just looks all wrong to me.
You are absolutely right. I don't think black has too many problems after 9...e6 though.
If after 9... Qa5 white continues with the natural 10. 0-0 the we have Haas - Schmidt, Baden 2002:
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[PlyCount "80"]
1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 4. Nxc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bc4 a6 7. Bg5 Nf6 8.
Bxf6 gxf6 9. Nh4 Qa5 10. O-O e6 11. Kh1 Be7 12. Qd2 Qg5 13. Nf3 Qxd2 14. Nxd2
b5 15. Be2 Nd4 16. Bd3 Bb7 17. a3 Rg8 18. f3 h5 19. g3 Rc8 20. Kg2 Bf8 21. Rad1
Bh6 22. Kf2 Ke7 23. Bb1 h4 24. Rfe1 h3 25. Nd5+ Bxd5 26. exd5 e5 27. Nf1 Kf8
28. g4 f5 29. Rxd4 exd4 30. Bxf5 Rc1 31. b3 Rxe1 32. Kxe1 Bc1 33. a4 bxa4 34.
bxa4 Ke7 35. Kd1 Bf4 36. Ke2 Kf6 37. Bd7 Rb8 38. g5+ Ke5 39. Bxh3 Rb2+ 40. Ke1
d3 {0-1 Haas,F-Schmidt,S (2232)/Baden 2002} *
And here black may even have the improvement 12...f5 with the idea 13. exf5 d5 or Bxh4.
So I wanted to look for alternatives to whites 10.0-0 and guess what move my engine suggested? 10. Nf3, lol!