Simple development with 4.Bb5+ Nbd7 5.Nf3 is best.  Then if the plausible 5...a6 6.Be2 Nxd5 7.d4 cxd4? 8.0-0! and Black is in territory much more familar to White, the main drawback being that Black's Nbd7 is misplaced.  The 5.Nf3 line is dismissed with a mere paragraph in Lakdawala/Hansen's book on the Anti Alapin Gambit.  The Bb5+/Nf3 line is considered best by SF 17, but the authors claim to have used Stockfish.  My line makes complete sense: it both prepares to castle, and prepares d4

I wanted to mention a miniature that I played with black on line. It was a bullet game. But worth mentioning. 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.c4 e6 6.Qxd4 Nc6 7.Qe3 Nb4 8.Na3 Qa5 9.Bd2 Bc5 10.Qg3 Ne4 11.Qxg7 Nc2+!! 12.Ke2 [12.Nxc2 Qxd2#] Qxd2+ 13.Kf3 Qxf2+ 14.Ke4 exd5+ [14...Qf5#] 15.Kxd5 Be6+ 16.Ke4 Qf5# 0-1

Hi.

Maybe the natural 21.Nf2 is wrong though (21.a4!?). The knight may actually be better on h3 where it holds up black's kingside play somewhat.

Have a nice day.

Confused_by_Theory wrote on 05/13/17 at 05:53:09:


Thanks for your thoughts! I agree that 13 Qf4 also deserves attention. 
After 1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Qa4+ Bd7 5. Qb3 e6!? 6. Qxb7 exd5 7. Qxa8 Qc7 8. Na3! c4! 9. Bxc4 dxc4 10. Qf3 Bxa3 11. bxa3 O-O 12. Ne2 Bc6 13. Qf4 Qxf4!? 14. Nxf4 Re8+ 15. Kf1 (15. Kd1?? Ba4 is mate!) the engines favour White with his extra material, but I don't think many human players would feel very comfortable after say 15...g5 16. Nh3 Be4 17. Bb2 Bd3+ 18. Kg1 Re2 19. Rd1 and here I suggest that instead of chasing material Black might do best to play for blockade with say 19...h6 20. f3 Nbd7 21. Nf2 Ne5. Over to you.
(pgn attached)

GM Daniel King chose this still rare line as his recommendation for Black in his Power Play 21 DVD on the Anti-Sicilians (2014). Despite quite healthy statistics, it cannot really be said that this line has caught on with strong players, perhaps because Black needs to be well prepared against several quite serious attempts at refutation.

One of these is 1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Qa4+, when King gave 4...Nbd7 and after 5 c4 e6 6 dxe6 he examined both 6...fxe6 and 6...Qe7, neither of which seemed particularly convincing to me; clearly Black has some compensation for the pawn (it's the backward one on d2 after all) but unlike comparable positions in the 1 e4 c5 2 f4 d5 3 exd5 Nf6 line, White has not weakened his position with f4.

There has been a recent development though. In the last round of this season's 4NCL Division 3N, the fast-improving Irish junior Tom O'Gorman parried 4.Qa4+ with 4...Bd7 and after 5.Qb3 he simply ignored the threat to his b7-pawn and continued with 5...e6, which seems to be new. White (FM Stuart Clarke) got into an awful tangle after 6. Qxb7 exd5 7. Qxa8 Qc7 (preventing the queen's escape and threatening ...Bc6) 8. a4?! Bd6! (developing; not 8...Bc6? 9 Bb5) 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Nf3 Re8+ 11. Kd1 and White eventually lost. 

At first I thought that this line could easily be improved with 8. Na3 (developing a piece and creating a counter-threat of Nb5, winning) when 8...c4 semes to be the only move, to which White's best answer seemed to be 9. Bxc4 dxc4, allowing the queen to escape with 10. Qf3, when White has won the exchange. I left the engine examining this, confident that White "must" be winning now, but in fact after a while Stockfish 8 judges that Black has more than enough compensation, after e.g. 10...Bxa3 11. bxa3 O-O 12. Ne2 Bc6 13. Qg3 Qe7 14. Qe3 Qb7 15. f3 Re8.

Food for thought, I hope. I'd welcome other opinions on this line!

Thank you! It's interesting.

Hello! Does anyone know, in which book following variation was advocated for black:

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 ?

I think it was in one of the everyman books. Am I right?