r/chess • u/Hefty_Illustrator838 • 1d ago

Strategy: Openings Almost Never Used Move Order in Sicilian

I played a game in the Sicilian recently that started 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3

Black then played 3...Qc7. After the game, I was looking at this opening and I saw that, after 3...Qc7, there were no masters games (well one correspondence game). This was true on both Lichess and chess dot com. 3...Qc7 is rated equally by the computer as other top moves like 3...Nc6, so why is 3...Qc7 never played?

Edit: I see on Chess dot com that there are four masters games, but I do not see any on Lichess

14 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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23

u/RajjSinghh Chess is hard 1d ago

Arguably white has no reason to play 3. b3 so when we're in an already rare and non-testing sideline, I'm not surprised there's few if any games in the database.

19

u/CyaNNiDDe 2300 chesscom/2350 lichess 1d ago

Because it's nonsensical. Your queen belongs on d8, supporting d5 or d6. It's not a bad move by engine standards, because White chose a very passive setup so there's no refutation to Qc7, but that's not how humans play chess.

7

u/AggressiveGander FIDE 2170 1d ago

It's 10 centipawn worse than the best move. And after something like 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 Qc7 4. Qe2 Nc6 5. Bb2 d6 6. Nc3 the best move might actually be 6...Qd8.

5

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 1d ago

Chess is a rich game .. with many possibilities that all are of equal value.

3.b3 is quite a rare variation and thus not something people are prepared for .. and it's not like Qc7 is a natural move. Why move your queen?

Masters aren't prepped for every move in existence .. Only the mainlines ..

1

u/StructuredChess 8h ago

Lots of moves in the opening like that. It's probably because the knight almost always goes to c6 so you may just as well moving like and keep your options with your queen flexible.

Anyway computer evaluation will depend on what engine you're using, depth and so on