Sicilian Sveshnikov

Sicilian Sveshnikov
The Sicilian Sveshnikov variation is a increasingly popular line in the Sicilian Defense. Evegny Sveshnikov, who the variation is named after is a Russian Grand Master who was the main driving force in the development of the variation in the 1970's. He became an IM in 1975 and a GM in 1977. He reached a peak rating of 2610 in January 1994 and now resides in Riga. Since the 1970’s other GM’s, such as Kasparov, Kramnik and Leko, have joined him in the development and advancement of this interesting opening. I enjoy the variation because of the imbalance of the position and the relative newness of the entire line. This gives me an advantage because many people don’t know the theory or rational for the line.
The Variation begins 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6. If the player with the black pieces doesn’t play 6…d6 then the reply is 7.Nd6+, which has worked out very well for White in both tournaments and practice. After 6…d6 the Sveshnikov continues 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5. This is the beginning setup for the Sveshnikov line. 9.Bxf6 gxf6. 9…Qxf6 isn’t good because it allows Nd5 attacking the Queen forcing Black to move his Lady to a poor square or retreat and lose some tempi. 10.Nd5 attacking the f6 pawn. 10…f5, here I like to play 10.Bd3, which backing up the pawn. Another possible move is c3, which I’ll show as well. The first game is Shirov-Grischuk 2003.