Najdorf with 6. f3

This line is new to me, and I hope to get some discussion going on it!

After 6. f3 I would probably play 6. ... e6 and think about the Scheveningen, as the notes said, but the 6. ... Qb6 lines are good enough to make me change my mind.

In case it wasn't clear, this is based on Richard Palliser's Starting Out: Sicilian Najdorf, which I've been reading lately, and IMO it is excellent. Love it.

He credits 6. ... Qb6 to Judit Polgar, who is one of my favorite players. When a book of her best games comes out, grab it, because she can attack as well as anyone in history.

I think that with 6. f3 white tries to set up a yugoslav attack, but im not sure as im not a big fan of the sicilian neither a pro on it.

That is an interesting insight. The Yugoslav familiar to me is against the dragon, but if black played ... g6 at some point, there would very likely be transpositions.

I used to play 6.f3 against the Najdorf to avoid 6...Ng4 myself, but I found it isn't strictly needed; after 6.Be3 Ng4, White can simply retreat the bishop to c1 and then play 7.f3, provided he doesn't want to play 6...Ng4 lines (which are perfectly playable for White), of course.

Palliser mentioned 7. Bc1 Nf3 8. Be3 etc. as a possible repeat - if white actually went in pursuit of the draw. He also mentioned that 8. ... e6 turns it into a Schevinengen English Attack. He didn't analyze that line.

In that line, MCO-14 gives (we have to add two moves to the move numbers here if we're transposing from 6. f3 Ng5 7. Bc1 Nf3 8. Be3 e6; the move numbers here correspond to an ordinary Scheveningen move order): 7. f3 b5 8. g4 h6 9. h4 b410. Nce2 e5 11. Nb3 Be6 12. Ng3 d5 13. Bd3 Nbd7 14. Qe2 a5 15. Rg1 a4 16. Nd2 Qc7 17. g5 hxg5 18. hxg5 dxe4 =, Anand – Gelfand, Linares 1994