opening - not game analysis, Zukertot opening h6

Hi all,

in this opening http://en.lichess.org/training/opening/17632 one of the 4 moves is h6. I consciously avoided h6 for the following reasons:

* after Bxh6 gxh6 (0-0-0) it's hard to find where black is going to castle, queen side castle is at least 2 moves away.
* h6 would be a nice place for the f8 bishop, but the pawn has to move first
* white can be pretty quick to sack central pawns to open lines on the black king in centre
* from white pov f7 looks like the obvious target, I'm thinking Bc4 at the right moment, and maybe even Nf5 knight sac, if it can force the e file open

At the same time I'm sceptical about blacks plans / what they have in this position, the only thing I see for black is the c file

Opinions? Are my reasons totally off? In this opening does white accept the king in the centre, castles into the shattered kingside or goes 0-0-0?

This is a Classical Sicilian Rauzer position. After h6 Bxf6 you get a frequently played position-type where black has the long-term asset of the two bishops and a central pawn-mass, in return for the weakened structure. Usually black keeps his king in the center for as long as possible, in many cases the entire game, while getting counterplay on the Q-side. Still, both kingside and queenside castling can occur, depending on development of the game.

h6 forces white to do a move which he usually plays anyway, so the reason for which it is played must be to prevent a quick e4-e5

Thanks for the quick reply, It helped me to understand blacks intentions a bit better. I am still sceptical about blacks position, but I guess this Rauzer stuff is not for everyone :)

so, many typos in my initial post... of course I meant f6 and black castling... sorry...

Hi pilotphew:

I found this game on database. I hope it's useful for this topic:

Robert Lovric vs Miodrag Mihajlovic (Spring Open 2008)
http://es.lichess.org/3NKP4eYH/black#15

Kindest regards