A very interesting idea vs the 2...d6 Sicilian

                    A very interesting idea vs the 2...d6 Sicilian

IM Jose Gascón 2483 FIDE

Hi everyone, i am here to share a very interesting idea to obtain a slight advantage vs the 2...d6 Sicilian players. I am talking about the move order 1.e4,c5 2.Ne2!? which i consider to be very tricky, after 2.Ne2 it all depends on black's response, if black plays 2...e6 or 2...Nc6 then white can choose between transposing to a normal open Sicilian after 3.d4 or play a closed Sicilian after 3.Nbc3 4.g3 etc... The main idea you can see if black plays 2...d6 now white can play 3.g3 ( a move that was unneffective vs 2...e6 or 2...Nc6 due to the reply 3...d5! And if 4.exd5 black can retake on d5 with the queen attacking the h1 rook which is very annoying for white) and the plan for white is to play 4.Bg2 5.c3 and 6.d4 gaining control of the center. That is something you can't do with the normal 2.Nf3 move because the e4 pawn won't have the defense of the g2 bishop as the knight is interrupting the g2-e4 diagonal and black will pressure with Nf6 eventually, that is why i like to develop the knight on e2! I attach the analysis with some key ideas, and a model game i played in the variation, if you have any doubt feel free to leave it in the comments below. Hope you liked it! See you all later!

the world champion Magnus Carlsen likes to play 2.Ne2 in some of his games