Actually that could be a major deterrent to 6 f3 - those h5 ideas are getting much more respectable recently (Topalov playing quite a bit etc) and white does often seem to end up playing for f4 against them.

Although there are other ideas like Be2/o-o etc (iirc Dismantling the Sicillian reccommends something along these line) where f3 does fit rather better.

Alright, I will look into these 6...Qb6 lines once more. I was scared away by White's tremendous score after 7.g4, but of course statistics aren't everything.

It is correct that White looses quite some options, the Nf3-line after 6...e5 wasn't mentioned yet.

Thanks for mentioning 6...b5, I wasn't aware of its independence. If White continues "normally" here, by refraining from ...e6 Black gets the Nd7-b6-manoeuvre as in the famous Movsesian-Kasparov game. So the critical move must be 7.a4. But also there Black gets good play.

Hi!

Some time ago I saw the three Leko-Carlsen-games in the 6.Be3 Ng4 line, and since then I've tried to integrate this dynamic line into my repertoire. However there seems to be a strange problem: What is Black supposed to do after 6.f3?

As most of you will know, there are two independent options (playing 6...e6 or 6...e5 is certainly not bad, but why waste time on the ...Ng4-line then, as these responses are also available after 6.Be3):

a)
6...Nc6 7.Be3 d5 8.Nxd5! Nxd5 9.exd5 Qxd5, when White is supposed to be slightly better after 10.c3 e5 11.Nb3 Qxd1 12.Rxd1, at least that is what Stohl says in his commentary to Topalov-Kasparov, Linares 1999 (Garry played 6...e6 there).

b)
6...Qb6 (much more popular) 7.g4! (there are more than three times more games with 7.Nb3 in my database, but after 7...e6 8.Qe2 Qc7 9.Be3 b5 10.g4 Black seems to get good play by means of 10...b4! (starting with Grischuk-Kasparov, Linares 2001, Black got 4.5/6)) Nc6 or 7...e6. The optimal setup for Black isn't possible anymore. In fact Grischuk, after having lost the game mentioned above, played 7.g4 against the same opponent and they drew after 20 moves (it was a rapid game). After that Garry never played 6...Qb6 again.

As White's score after 7.g4 is impressive (about 70%), so I'm not sure why Leko repeatedly allowed the ...Ng4-line, and why 6.Be3 is that much more popular than 6.f3 today. The only other reason I see is that after 6.f3 White cannot use the f2-f4 lines against ...e5, but these never seemed to threaten Black theoretically, while 6.Be3 Ng4 is a very respectable line where White has no obvious way to an advantage.