Recently, my chess coach and I have been revamping my opening repertoire and we've decided that the Taimanov will be my primary weapon vs 1 e4. In researching top games, a relatively new and increasingly popular line has seemingly taken over the top Taimanov games:
1 e4 c5
2 Nf3 e6
3 d4 cxd4
4 Nxd4 Nc6
5 Nc3 Qc7
6 Be3 a6
7 Qf3
facilitating an earlier 0-0-0 for white and potentially allowing the queen to harass the black kingside from g3, limiting black's development. The move 7 Qf3 was popularized largely by Karjakin vs Giri, FIDE GP Tashkent 2014 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1777950). Strong Taimanov players: what are your opinions on 7 Qf3, and what is your prefered response against it?
1 e4 c5
2 Nf3 e6
3 d4 cxd4
4 Nxd4 Nc6
5 Nc3 Qc7
6 Be3 a6
7 Qf3
facilitating an earlier 0-0-0 for white and potentially allowing the queen to harass the black kingside from g3, limiting black's development. The move 7 Qf3 was popularized largely by Karjakin vs Giri, FIDE GP Tashkent 2014 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1777950). Strong Taimanov players: what are your opinions on 7 Qf3, and what is your prefered response against it?