Love those asterisks!

Well since the partisans of the white pieces haven't spoken, I will say that I think the most critcal tries after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 are 6.g3 Qb6 7.Ndb5 and the immediate 6.Nbd5.  Personally I don't think 6.a3 is so very impressive, for example 6...Bc5 7.Nb3 Be7.

Wild game, Uruk -- thanks.

But I think I'd better admit to being a bit dopey at the moment!   For some reason I'd not looked at the the A33 stuff on ChessPublishing, where there are several exciting games with 6 a3!?. OK this may not 'set the world on fire' and objectively Black may well be OK, but it strikes me as a very interesting line if you like playing with a space advantage, and there are quite a few inspiring high-level games from which to draw ideas.

Sorry, kylemeister! Interested as we chessplayers all are in the psychology of an error, you must have wondered ‘What the …??’. The reason, I’m embarrassed to say, is just that I had games with 3 …Nc6 rather than 3 …e6 on my screen and, being in mad haste, confused the two positions – which is a useful reminder, I guess, that 4 e4 (and 4 e3) is possible after 3 …Nc6 too. But I’m still interested in those sixth-move alternatives …

I have a ‘repertoire’ question relating to the position after 1 c4 c5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 Nc6. Originally I was thinking, by playing 4 d4 rather than 4 g3 here, I could, should I so wish, avoid the Tarrasch and Keres-Parma (not out of esteem of them, but just so as to concentrate on other parts of the possible repertoire, e.g. the Maroczy Bind). But Davies says (p. 71) that 4 …cd 5 Nd4 e6 6 g3 Qb6! is not great for White, and so it indeed seems. White has other sixth moves, though, and I’m wondering why Davies doesn’t mention these. Has anyone experience/knowledge of [i]6 Ndb5[/i], [i]6 a3,[/i] [i]6 Bf4[/i] or [i]6 Bg5[/i], which are common tries (the first two anyway) and seem quite decent?

Of course the original ‘thought’ is not impeccably logical, since after 3 …e6 instead of 3 …Nc6, to avoid a Tarrasch or K-P White would probably have to play the fairly rare [i]4 e4!?[/i] (4 e3 could produce a Semi-Tarrasch or Panov-Botvinnik Caro-Kann), but then that's all right, since it offers good chances of a Maroczy Bind occurring!