I play 3...g6 because the other options don't appeal to me. Black has a reasonably wide choice of plans and move-orders in all of the main lines. Carlsen's ...Qc7 concepts seem decent and there have been some new developments in the traditional 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 Nf6 line.

The positions after 3...e6 are not to my taste. My impression is that 3...d6 is somewhat dangerous for Black if White knows what to do. I haven't looked at 3...Nf6 much, but I actually think that it's better than its reputation. I'm going to look at that line in more depth soon.

Actually, one of the (many) reasons that I switched to the Sveshnikov from the Najdorf is that I much prefer the Rossolimo to the Moscow.

TheLazyBrother wrote on 08/19/10 at 20:34:14:


3...g6 seems to fit the bill the best. What is it about 3...g6 that you don't like?

Glenn Snow wrote on 08/03/15 at 14:20:14:

Indeed, though in a roundabout way, for many scattered reasons. At first, the Anti-Sicilians section of my book was intended to be very short, just providing some guidance on move order issues and giving a bit of short coverage (this was at Everyman's suggestion - I wanted to write a more comprehensive Kalashnikov book, and they wanted a repertoire book with a small amount of material on the Anti-Sicilians - they thought it was a more marketable book) of all of White's options, etc. And so in order to keep it manageable, I thought it might be easier to try and swerve into ...e6 related options, e.g. 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 e6, 3.f4 e6, 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6, etc. But then some irritating move order stuff popped up, e.g. 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nge2!? e5 4.g3, etc. And so I decided that it should be a more focused around fianchetto approaches. I had a lot of material already on these systems, as I had been playing my recommendations in the Closed and GPA for a long time already. This ...g6 stuff is also a little bit more versatile if people intended to use the book for just the Anti-Sicilian coverage or if they wanted to eventually move away from the Kalashnikov and to something else. Eventually I moved away from meeting the Rossolimo with 3...e6 because I found a few problems, it was no longer part of a thematic framework, and because I had a lot more experience and a few new ideas after 3...Nf6. I picked it up a long time ago from The Easiest Sicilian and had always found White knew less there than in other places.

And as you can see, the Anti-Sicilians coverage also ballooned up into a book in and of itself - it felt weird for me to write 20-50 page chapters on the Kalashnikov and then really short chapters on the Anti-Sicilians. They'd be inconsistent and useless compared to the rest of the text, so I just did what I felt was right anyway!

Raetsky recommends 3...e6 in "Meeting 1.e4". Seems OK to me.

Of course, if you're happy to play lines with ...e6 then 2...e6 is an attractive way of avoiding 3.Bb5. I'm not actually sure why Raetsky recommends 2...Nc6 rather than 2...e6, since his main line is the Four Knights. As another Kalashnikov-liking Rossolimo-hater, I switched to 2...e6 with a view to a Sveshnikov (or a sideline of the Kalashnikov).

I recommend 3...d6 since it's very solid but still provides Black with active counterplay and plenty of opportunity to play for a win. Palliser's Bb5 Sicilian book covers this line very objectively, and his view is that Black should equalise.

You summed up your major options very well. Apart from 3...g6 (not very French-like or Kalashnikov-like), you have 3 major options: 3...e6, 3...d6 and 3...Nf6. If you want something more offbeat, you could also consider 3...Na5 or 3...a6. They don't have the same reputation as the 4 other main moves, but they are playable, even if a well prepared white player has more chances to get an edge against them.

Coming back to the 3 main alternative moves to 3...g6, I would have guessed that 3...e6 would fit to a former French player. Considering your sentence:

TheLazyBrother wrote on 08/19/10 at 20:34:14:


I'd be wrong. So, you'll have to decide for yourself between the 2 others. My suggestion would be to consult the book "The Bb5 Sicilian" from Palliser. It is best suited to your questions, as you'll see excellent coverage of each system: 3...d6 and 3...Nf6, but also 3...e6 and 3...g6 if you change your mind. The book is 5 years old, but still the best (or only?) available source on 3.Bb5 which is not a black or white repertoire.