FreeRepublic wrote on 06/12/21 at 16:37:05:


Correction:
white is playing pretty much without the benefit of his knight. [/quote]

In the positionally similar Botvinnik Variation 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 h6 8.Bxf6 gxf6 Botvinnik wrote trading queens is a basic objective for black.

See Suetin - Botvinnik, 20th USSR ch 1952 in Botvinnik (1996) Half a Century of Chess, game 63, pages 177-180.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032267

I went ahead and bought Kozul's book. I followed a line from IM Kanmazalp's book. Both books are great if you want to play this line as black.

They both include discussion of the game Gleichmann,M (2550)-Laghetti,G (2457) ICCF email 2015 and find it game satisfactory for black.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd4 4. Nd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5! Bd7!? 7. Qd2! a6 8. O-O-O e6 9. f3!? Nd4! 10. Qd4 Be7!? 11. Kb1 b5 12. g4. Here Kozul provides one of his games with 12...Qc7. I will have to look at this as it looks safer than the game continuation:

12. ... O-O 13. Be3 Bc6 14. h4 Nd7 15. h5 h6 16. Qd2. Both Kanmazalp and Kozul continue with the game move 16...Rc8. GM Roiz of ChessPublishing, referring to this game, says "White's attacking prospects were clearly better."

Black can diverge with 16... Ne5!? 17. Qg2 Bf6 18. f4 Nc4 19. Bc4 bc4 20. Bd4 Rb8 21. Bf6 Qf6 22. Qg3 Qe7 23. g5 hg5 24. fg5 Qb7. Black has equal chances. Play might continue 25. b3 cb3 26. ab3 Be4 27. Ne4 Qe4 28. g6 a5. It this isn't a Sicilian position, I don't know what is.

Peculiar - my database contains 23 games and White scores 65%, due to 13 wins. Four of them are corr. games. This confirms that stats don't mean much with so few games.

That said I feel that Bd7 is misplaced after the knights exchange. And that's why I'd prefer 7...Be7 8.O-O-O Nxd4 9.Qxd4 a6, As this is off topic I won't mention the one big problem line.

After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8. O-O-O Bd7, both GM Kozul and IM Kanmazalp devote many more chapters to 9. f4 than to 9. f3. I think the reason is that 9. f4 has been around longer and also lends itself to more concrete analysis.

After 9 f3, both books discuss the relatively recent 9. ... Nxd4!? 10. Qxd4 Be7. This scores very well for black - 46%! Playing this may not be so easy as the stats indicate. White's plan is simple, a pawn storm on the king side. Black may have to choose judiciously between playing on the queen side, king side, or center.

I have Kanmazalp's book and he now covers 11.h4, 11g4, and 11. Kb1. White can easily combine these moves, so there are many possible transpositions.

I played through his analysis of 11h4 with a computer and found the engine to be almost worthless. The line in question is a mutual pawn storm and the engine simply can not make out the strength of attack until it's almost over. I'll just say you get everything you hoped for in a Sicilian.

I got bogged down looking at 11g4 because black must consider Be3 g5 by white. So where to put the knight? Kanmazalp opts for h5. If black plays ...Bc6, then ...Nd7 becomes possible. ...0-0 makes ...Ne8 possible.

I found only 17 games after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8. O-O-O Bd7 9. f3 Nxd4!? 10. Qxd4 Be7 11g4. Black scores 50%. Tal played white in the first two games (a win and a draw).

After 11g4, several moves have been tried:  ...b5, ...Bc6, ...h6, ...h5, ...Qa5, and ...Qc7. At this point, I don't think I can trust game results or computer analysis, without digging deeper.

After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bg5! e6 7. Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O Bd7 9. f3 Nxd4!? 10. Qxd4 Be7 11. g4, Kanmazalp continues ...b5 12. Be3 O-O 13. g5 Nh5 with further analysis of  14Qd2 and 14h4. 14f4 is also possible.

Sometimes at a dinner party, you'll hear someone chatting with their neighbor. Then a short while later you'll hear someone further down the table saying the same thing. Funny when that happens.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O Bd7 9.f3 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Bc6 11.h4 h6 12.Be3 d5

I don't know about 12...d5, after 13.e5 Nd7 14.f4 followed by Kb1, Qd2, Bd3, Ne2-d4, etc. At first the foolish engine thinks it's equal, but that's not the case at all.

GM Yermolinsky looks at the Kozul variation in his three part (and counting) video series on the Internet Chess Club.

A search of the ICC videos shows a Game of the Month on the 9f3 variation. It is Kurnosov-Dubov, annotated by Joel Benjamin. It continues with the obvious 9...b5. That may not be the best move, but the game itself is very good.