Two Shocking Moves in the Sicilian Defence

I have been playing and following chess all my life and I have seen quite a lot. However, though rarely, sometimes I am shocked at the sight of certain moves.

This time, they come in the Sicilian Defence.

The shocking value of these moves was further enhanced by the fact that they occurred very early in the game, in a position where the usual theoretical moves are played without thinking. As chess is being explored in more depth it becomes difficult to come up with new moves and ideas, but the engines also allow us to explore moves that at first sight appear silly or nonsensical.

I think the following two examples fall into this category. The first example happened in this position.

What can be more recognisable than this?

Black is free to choose his preferred Sicilian: the Najdorf with 5...a6, the Dragon with 5...g6, the Classical with 5...Nc6 or the Scheveningen with 5...e6 being the main choices.

Imagine then my surprise when I saw the move 5...Na6. First played by an unknown player in 1999 at the U20 championship of the Netherlands, it was used by GM Adrian Mikhalchishin in 2001 and then again in 2023 against the same opponent GM Georg Mohr, with both games ending in quick draws. However, it was used by GM Pichot at the Online Olympiad against GM Zambrana.

The first idea that crossed my mind was that it must have been a mouse slip, but perhaps this is exactly what Black intended - develop the knight on a6 and smile to himself while doing so. Who knows? In the game the knight went to c5 and eventually the game was drawn.

The second idea is equally early in the game, in yet another starting position of the Sicilian.

Again, you say? Well, it appears that Black has one more option here in addition to the usual 5...e5 (Sveshnikov), 5...d6 (Classical) or 5...e6 (Four Knights).

How about 5...h5?!?

What a shocker.

As a matter of fact, the move has been around since 2020 and heavily tested in computer chess. Ever since then, it has been used by a lot of strong Grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen!

The move isn’t bad at all, in fact.

One of the ideas of the move is that the typical reaction that works against 5...g6, i.e. 6.Nc6 bc 7.e5 when White is doing great, with the pawn on h5 Black can play the move 7...Ng4 and he is fine. Obviously White has many ideas after 5...h5, but things are much more complicated than one might expect after such an outrageous move.

I am pretty sure that we will see more early surprises in chess, though they are not easy to find - the earlier they happen in the game, the harder they are to justify. Not all of them will stand the scrutiny of more serious analysis, but their surprise value will be rather high, especially if they happen in the first few moves of the game.

P.S. This week’s video is on another strange move in the Sicilian. This time, it’s White’s turn to play 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 and now 3.Qxd4. This move would have been considered silly in the past, but some theory has built around it as White plans to go Qd3, Nc3, Nf3, Be2 and 0-0 with some sort of a playable Sicilian. In the video I analyse what appears to me to be the cleanest way for Black how to solve all problems, with an option to keep it complex if he desires to do so. Check it out here.