Hello 

One of the ideas of the Velimirovic is for Nd7-c5 to "mark" Bb3, whilst Nc6 still does same for Nd4. Does not look a bad suggestion all the same though... 
                    After, 8..Be7 9.f4 d6 10.g4, in other lines black does get a improved Scheveningen, Burgess seems to prefer 10 ... h6 quoting same games and idea as orginal poster. In the only game I could find involving Delchev went 8... Be7 9 f4 b5, with no mention of the line at all in the "Safest.." book as far as I can tell.

Bye John S

Various permutation of a Be3/Be2/f4/g4/Qd2/o-o-o set up have been tried vs the Scheveningen reasonably recently by strong GM's - curiously without picking up any real quantity of theory. 

They seem to tend not to play a3 unless forced to by b5 though - playing it so early in the taminov has to be a (minor) concession of sorts, but you probably get it back by 'forcing' black to defend a type of position they're not used to.

If white develops first with Qd2 & o-o-o then g4 involves the same sacrifice as the Taminov line - but often black has castled making it even less attractive to win g4. In a few games white has gone for 5 .. a6 6 Be3 e6 7 Be2 Be7 8 f4 o-o 9 g4. That doesn't sac a pawn but does allow d5 leading to something like 9 .. d5 10 e5 Ne4 11 NxN PxN 12 g5 - this happened in a Shirov - Kasparov game in 2001 & Leko - Topalov 2005 (both draws.).

Which move orders are best still seems to be very open to debate It's never been as popular as pure english attacks or the classical Scheveningen with o-o. But it's certainly dangerous.

Thanks to all who responded.   

I didn't realize this line is covered in Dangerous Weapons.  I may have to buy that book.  Meantime, I discovered 8.a3 the hard way.  I got crushed by it.  After 8.a3, I transposed to the Scheveningen with 8..Be7 9.f4 d6 10.g4 0-0 11.g5 Nd7 12.h4 Re8.  Black hasn't made any obvious mistakes and should be able to defend this position, but I later went wrong and went down in flames.  OK, my bad, but I've since analyzed this line a little and I think that 10..0-0 is probably asking for it.  At the least, White's play is easier and almost automatic.  He plays Qd2, 0-0-0 and launches the kingside pawn flotilla.   

Black has other and possibly better options.  For example, I like the look of 10..h6, as played by Movsesian and Van der Sterren.  After 11.h4 Nxd4 12.Qxd4 e5 13.Qd2 Bxg4 14.Bxg4 Nxg4, White has comp, but I like the idea of blocking the g-file with a subsequent ..h5.   

Other ideas include 10..Nxd4 11.Bxd4 e5 12.Be3 exf4  13.Bxf4 Be6 14.g5 Nd7 15.Qd2 Ne5 or for those who like the French, 10..d5 11.e5 Nd7.  Black can also try 10..b5 11.g5 Nd7 12.Nb3 Bb7  13.Bd3 Nc5  14.Qe2 Rd8  15.Qf2 b4 transposing to Leko-Fedorchuk, 1995, although I'm not sure that White really has to retreat the Nd4 to b3.  Either 12.Qd2 or 12.h4 might be more incisive.

I'm still looking at these lines and would love to hear from anyone with additional thoughts or suggestions.  I'd also be very interested to hear what Dangerous Weapons says about all this.
 
Thanks.

"8..Be7 9.f4 d6 10.g4, where White has very natural play, (e.g., g5, h4, Qd2, 0-0-0 a la the English Attack) and Black has to be very careful not to get crushed."
If this is that dangerous and if a2-a3 is so useful, I can't help wondering, why White does not apply it against the Scheveningen proper? Something like 2...d6/5...e6 6.Be3 a6 7.Be2 Nc6 8.f4 Qc7 9.a3 Be7 10.g4 etc.

Hello,

This was quite popular in the sixties, and I think it is one line that the Delchev book as underestimated a bit. Willempie's idea has been played by Taimanov himself, so should be ok. Against, general advice of  book would play a Scheveningen position myself. Against g4 plan, black has NxN followed by e5 like normal, so not sure what is more dangerous about this position. Looks like will have to get that dangerous weapons book though, has had good reviews.

Bye John S

OK, Taimanov fans, what do you think of 8.a3

 

At first glance, it looks like White is just afraid of ..Bb4, but this is actually a dangerous system.  The first point is that attempts to play a la the Taimanov, such as 8..Bd6 or 8..b5, don't work well in this particular position.  The second point is that the attempt to transpose to the Scheveningen leads to a position after, say, 8..Be7 9.f4 d6 10.g4, where White has very natural play, (e.g., g5, h4, Qd2, 0-0-0 a la the English Attack) and Black has to be very careful not to get crushed. 

So, what is Black to do?  Best I can come up with is to either defend the Scheveningen positions or else try Judit Polgar's 8..Na5!?  But I suspect that I'm missing something, else White would play this system much more often.    

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?