What's the Point of the a6 in the Main Line of the Sicilian Defense?
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,969
If you have to ask, you probably should just quit poker.
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 6,218
someone hinted at it a little bit, but the actual point of 6. ...a6 was to prepare 7. ...e5 without having to worry about 7. Bb5+. sure all the other ideas (...b5, ...Bb7, ...b4, etc.) are great, but that was najdorf's initial reasoning.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 112
a6 is played to prevent either Bb5+ or, especially, Nb5. The development of Black's Q to c7 is fundamental to these positions, as is the move b5, and often .. Bb7 (where the B does not go to ..e6), etc.
..a6 is not without drawbacks, since White has a5 at the appropriate moment. In the Najdorf, Black's game can be very difficult without ..b5. If you play the Najdorf, you have a lot of book to learn. Kasparov, toward the end of his career, abandoned the KID because, he said, he did not have time both to research the Najdorf and the KID adequately.
Of course, he had just had his KID cajones surgically removed by Kramnik, so...
Getreal-
