What opening line is this?

In one of the weekly magazines I read I stumbled upon this position, though it might not be exactly the same as I present it to you now, because it was captured from a weird angle (it was just an illustration for a mathematical problem):

its a najdorf. i would know, ive played it for a long time.

Najdorf Sicilian - it's a well-known position in this opening :

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Nbd7 10.Bd3 b5 11.Rhe1 b4 12.Nd5!?

I was gonna answer but some of the young guns here are too fast for me...

=)

Its interesting that the beasts favor black in the position after 12....exd5 but according to my database actual results favor white...... which to trust/believe ?

Probably the beasts, however that depends on what ratings you have in your database? If its a 2400+ database, for example, then it probably favours white.

According to Aagard white shall have a good game in that variation, but in practice white scores about 50%.

Thank you very much! But why isn't it considered a Scheveningen? I thought Najdorf with 6... e6 transposes to the Scheveningen (Kasparov's idea with the intention to avoid the Keres Attack), or at least a Scheveningen Najdorf?!

6.Bg5 against the Scheveningen isn't good (because of 6...h6, I believe, but I don't play these openings). So the position after 6.Bg5 e6 really only arises through the Najdorf move order.

But it's still a transposition from Najdorf to the Scheveningen, right? (Black played 6... e6 instead of Najdorf-typical 6... e5.)

 6....e5 for black is typical against the 6 Be2 najdorf and even 6 f4 but not against 6 Bg5

Dimitrije, actually the Bg5 Najdorf is kind of a different beast.

You're right the central pawn structure relates to the Sheveninguen. However, the play is so different from other Najdorf and Scheveninguen variations that it deserves to be treated as a specific set-up, namely a "Bg5-Najdorf"

In other Najdorf and Scheveninguen variations, you'll sometimes have to deal with transpositions from one structure to another (black pushes e6-e5), or black can choose between different structures (Scheveninguen ? Najdorf ? Rauzer ?), so the comparison can be made, but here, well, things are just slightly different, or so I think

OK, so I thought! Thanks!