GMTonyKosten wrote on 08/10/06 at 09:37:40:


I dont know if it loses to Be3 or not but I have found a lot of examples from Irina Krush.

She played really well untill she blundered in the endgame in this most revent encounter:

[Event "FIDE-Wch k.o. (Women)"]
[Site "Ekaterinburg"]
[Date "2006.03.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Kosintseva,Tatiana"]
[Black "Krush,Irina"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "B60"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 Qb6 8.Bxf6 gxf6
9.Nb3 Bd7 10.0-0-0 0-0-0 11.f4 Na5 12.Be2 h5 13.Rhf1 Kb8 14.Kb1 Nxb3 15.axb3 Qc5 16.Rf3 f5
17.Rh3 h4 18.exf5 Qxf5 19.g4 Qa5 20.Qd4 Be7 21.b4 Qc7 22.Ne4 d5 23.Nf6 Rc8 24.Rc3 Qd6
25.Qe5 Rhd8 26.b5 Rxc3 27.bxc3 Kc7 28.c4 Qxe5 29.fxe5 dxc4 30.Bxc4 a6 31.bxa6 bxa6 32.g5 Bb5
33.Rxd8 Bxd8 34.Bxe6 Be7 35.Bxf7 Bf8 36.g6 Kd8 37.Nh5 Ke7 38.e6  1-0

Im no GM but I would think that if they are going to spend time paying Be3 after playing Bg5 then I can say that its ok to spend the tempo moving the queen again just as he or she moved the bishop again. 

Now if i were to play say Qb6 instead of Nc6 i think Be3 would be a great reply. 

Oh and to clarify If they did spend the time moving the bishop again I think i would place my queen on c7.

BasqueKnight wrote on 08/09/06 at 21:18:29:


Isn't this losing to 7 Be3
Alumbrado is right, Fed covered the Classical Sicilian (and Richter-Rauzer, and Sozin) really well when he was doing the Open Sicilians.

Ok so I have been trying to learn a little bit more about the classical sicilian. I would like to know if theyre are any good books on it from the last 5 years or so and if theyre are any threads that cover more than say one variation of it here on chess publishing. I have looked but not found any thing of the like.

I am extremely interested where black plays an early Qb6. Against Bg5 that is.

I know that the classical is a transpostional tool a lot of the time but I would like to focus more on independent lines.

Oh and another thing that I was thinking about and is a little off topic.

Is it just me or am I seeing the Grivas Sicilian come up more and more at the higher levels? In the past few issues of chess life I have found it and I was thinking. Maybe im seeing it more because well the other sicilian lines are very well analysed and people are looking for something new to play with.

God bless