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In the Najdorf can white play 7. Qd2 and plan later 0-0-0 for faster development? It looks very interesting. But we do not find such games with these move orders. Chess experts, please explain with variations and explanations so that it can help many budding players.

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1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6  5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2
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  • Wonderful answer Maxwell86 Sir.
    – Club Player
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 16:59

1 Answer 1

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7

This line is not very popular because black can challenge the bishop with 7…h6. Now white is forced to exchange his bishop against the knight, either by taking right away 8.Bxf6 or after 8.Be3 Ng4. This is something you'd rather avoid, though its not immediately problematic for white.

If you try to avoid this with 8.Bh4 you run into 8…Nxe4. I actually lost a game like this, if I remember correctly, some 10 years ago.

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 
7. Qd2 h6 8. Bh4 Nxe4
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  • But oddly enough, in the Richter-Rauzer (5...Nc6 instead of 5...a6), 7.Qd2 is the main line by far. There must a simply reason why, but I can't think of it right now.
    – RemcoGerlich
    Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 16:00
  • 3
    Probably Ndb5 after 7…h6 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 . Seems to me like d6 falls. So black can't take back with the queen.
    – BlindKungFuMaster
    Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 16:04
  • Perhaps the difference is that after h6, white is more happy to exchange the bishop on f6. If 7. .. h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9 Ndb5 looks good for white.
    – user1583209
    Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 16:14

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