Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5/2. Nf3/2...d6/3. d4/3...cxd4/4. Nxd4/4...Nf6/5. Nc3/5...a6/6. Be3

English attack
	a b c d e f g h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a b c d e f g h
	Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) rnbqkb1r/1p2pppp/p2p1n2/8/3NP3/2N1B3/PPP2PPP/R2QKB1R
	Moves: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3
	Parent: Najdorf Sicilian

6. Be3 · English attack

6. Be3 is the English attack. White has an idea to castle long and storm Black's kingside with their pawns.

6...e5 is the mainline. This drives off White's knight to b3, but weakens d5 which White will try to use as an outpost.

6...Ng4 is the Anti-English. Black tries to avert White's plans of a kingside attack by trading off White's important dark square bishop. Whereas in the Yugoslav attack against the Dragon Sicilian, 6. Be3 Ng4?? is a mistake on account of 7. Bb5+! Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Bxc6+ Bd7 10. Bxa8, the difference in the Najdorf is that Black has played ...a6, so White does not have the resource Bb5+, therefore ...Ng4 is safe.

6...e6 builds a "small centre" and transposes into a Scheveningen Scillian. This is move order ju-jitsu to play the Scheveningen without facing the Keres attack, 5...e6 6. g4!. In that line, Black cannot play 6...e5 on account of the Bb5+ resource. However, in the move order 5...a6 6. Be3 e6, Black's a6 pawn prevents Bb5+, so 7. g4!? can be met with ...e5!, a discovered attack on g4 and threatening ...exd4 with a fork.

History

6. Be3 is the most popular way for White to combat the Najdorf. It has been played since the 1950s^[1], but 6. Bg5 was more typical until the 1980s, when 6. Be3 was popularised by English grandmasters like Tony Miles, John Nunn and Nigel Short.^[2]

The approach--long castle and pawn storm--had been the standard approach against the Dragon Sicilian, the Yugoslav attack, since at least the 1930s.^[3]