1.Nf3 c5 2.b3 Nf6 3.Bb2 g6 4.e4

Hello,

not being too happy with my opening results after 1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 against strong players (>2350), I have been looking at various alternatives. One is the radical 2.e4, but I found that never having played 1.e4 in my life, even good-for-white Sicilians are difficult for me to handle. It is an option to work on that weakness though.

Another one is 1.Nf3 c5 2.b3, recommended by Alejandro Ramirez. On his otherwise highly instructive Chessbase DVD on the Reti he recommends this move order, goes on mentioning the possibility of 1.Nf3 c5 2...Nf6 3.Bb2 g6 4.e4, which he just concludes with the comment that this isn't an acceptable Sicilian for black.

Unfortunately I cannot really find white's advantage in this line. 4...Bg7 5.e5 suggests itself, and now both 5...Nd5 and 5...Nh5 seem to be healthy moves. Black follows up 0-0 and d6, and I don't find it at all easy for white to gain any advantage.

Any input&ideas on this is appreciated.

Rumo

Well to be fair I don't think Nf3 and b3 together tend to give an advantage except in certain cases. I think it's just a good way to get the pieces out and try to outplay your opponent. But anyway I'll take a shot in the dark here and guess that he's comparing this to a position in the c3 sicilian. 

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 c4 7.Bc2

In your position White has the same grip on the dark squares but the dark-squared bishop is better placed and White still has the option of d4. Black is also a bit behind on the normal plan of Nc6, Qc7 and g5 since he already played g6. The only point Black has is that the bishop on b2 can be vulnerable to d7-d6. 

So in your position I looked at 5...Nd5 6.Ng5 to be an interesting move. The knight is still on d5 and White wants to add pressure to the king before Black can undermine the center. A trick is 6...Nc6 7.Nxf7 Kxf7 8.Qf3+ Nf6 9.ef Bxf6 10.Bxf6 ef 11.Bc4+. Another one is 6....O-O 7.Qf3 Nb4 8.Bc4!? (well I like it lol...) Nxc2+ 9.Kd1 Nxa1 10.Bxf7+ Kh8    11.Qh3 h6 12.Bxg6 when White threatens 12.e6 pinning the h6 pawn. But ok this should be looked at with an engine.

After 5...Nh5 I just want to win the knight with cheapos. So 6.d4. No one captured probably because 6...cd 7.Qd2 (g2-g4 is threatened.) d6 8.h3 de 9.g4 Nf4 10.Nxd4. Anyway after 6...O-O 7.Qc1 I found two games:

 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1015544

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1101904

Thank you for the response. While you are right that 2.b3 is not the critical continuation, and from an opening theoretical standpoint without any doubt inferior to 2.c4, you seem to underestimate its bite quite a bit. The moves 1.Nf3 and 2.b3 certainly do go well together, Kramnik successfully employed them against 1...d5 last year, where black can hardly avoid defending against one respectable line from the Reti or another. But I admit that 1.Nf3 c5 2.b3 gives black more options. Against a Hedgehog setup white usually doesn't want to fianchetto his Q-side bishop. Another interesting (and very logical) attempt at refuting the early b3 is a Botvinnik setup, but the consequences of this don't seem clear to me at all.

Comparing the line to the Alapin makes some sense, but I don't think that the two positions have very much in common. In the one after 2.b3 white needs to take very concrete actions, as otherwise the tactical situation on the a1-h8 diagonal will work to his disadvantage.

5...Nd5 6.Ng5 looks fun, and  6....O-O 7.Qf3 Nb4 8.Bc4 really is a nice idea, but unfortunately 8...e6 comes as a double-attack against c2 and g5. And after 5...Nh5, the ideas to trap the knight just don't work due to the Bb2's misplacement. In the line that you give, black seems to be more than fine after 10...exd4, but stronger seems to be 9...Qd5, and white is falling apart.

I know the two games but unfortunately they are rather unconvincing: In the first, Adorjan plays the weak 6...Nf4 instead of happily taking on c3, and in the second Najdorf just gets slaughtered in his attempts to catch the aforementioned Nh5.

Edit: Ouch, my posting had been in draft mode for weeks.

Yeah I thought you left lol. Well anyway this is too rich for my blood. It looks like it shouldn't work but I guess it does. I hope you can figure it out.

Try playing the KIA (king's indian attack, not killed in action lol)

Nf3 c5 g3

you just follow up with moves like bg2, 0-0, d3, e4

and stuff like that. it's just a KID but you're playing as white.

Without e4, Hjorth wins vs Robert Byrne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XODYiwp5k8&list=UUJ7Ogp96NhyVMx6ZoRg8AfA

What do you play against 1...Nf6?