FSR: In this tournament and the 2024 USCF Absolute Championship, played around the same time, I decided to play the Najdorf Sicilian, one of the soundest responses to 1.e4. My opponent responded with the Chameleon Sicilian, where White on his second and third moves plays some combination of Nc3 and Nf3 (or Nge2). This poses a problem for Najdorf devotees, who end up playing things like 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 a6 (3...Nf6 is also OK) to avoid getting tricked into an Open Sicilian other than the Najdorf. I don't particularly like 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4; if White plays the Grand Prix Attack I'd rather have the option of playing ...d5 in one go, as in K Thompson vs F Rhine, 1992.So I decided to respond to 2.Nc3 with 2...Nc6 anyway. After 3.Nf3, in J A Esquivel Leon vs F Rhine, 2023 I played 3...g6 letting my opponent take me into a Dragon. Of course, 3...d6 is possible, allowing a Classical Sicilian, but the Richter-Rauzer gives White a decent advantage, as much as +0.5, bigger than he'd get against the Najdorf. In Miettinen-Rhine, 2024 USCF Absolute Championship, I have played 3...e5 4.Bc4 Be7 as Sveshnikov recommended.
This time my opponent played 3.Nge2, another flavor of the Chameleon Sicilian. Here 3...e5 doesn't have as good a reputation, see Fischer vs R Naranja, 1967, although I'm sure it's playable, e.g. A Soltis vs Anand, 1986 ; M Rohde vs R Byrne, 1987 ; Fischer vs Spassky, 1992. I consulted Stockfish 16.1, which said Black's best responses to 3.Nge2 were 3...g6 (again reaching a Dragon after 4.d4) and, to my surprise, the unusual 3...Nd4!?, which Black played only 2% of the time!
I decided to play 3...Nd4. I was amused by the possible continuation 4.g3?? Nf3#! C F Heng vs B Oh, 2017. Since my opponent is a Correspondence Chess Master and is doubtless using one or more extremely strong engines, I had no hope of that, alas. He instead played the other fianchetto-move, 4.b3. I equalized easily. He launched a kingside attack with 12.h4 even though his pieces are not well placed for attack. The simplest response is 12...h5=. I decided to play a sharper and more interesting line that in an OTB game would have given him chances to go wrong. Black's play looks, but is not, suicidal. I knew from Stockfish that with best play White gets a small advantage with an extra pawn, but Black can hold. My choice of this line could be considered quixotic. My opponent had access to the same information as I did, and hence was very likely to play the optimal response. Why give one's opponent even a small advantage unnecessarily if there's no real upside? But either way it's a draw. He could have played 37.Re2 Nf4 38.Rd2 with a microscopic advantage (around +0.05), but chose to allow the repetition.
Kibitzing
