Valeri Bronznik & Steve Giddins, The Lazy Man's Sicilian: Attack and Surprise White with the Basman-Sale Variation (New in Chess, 2015). 222 pp., $22.95/€19.95. Sort of reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos.
The "Lazy Man's Sicilian" is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5. If you meet this with 5.Be3 Qb6 6.b4! Black will be very unhappy, e.g. 6...Qxb4+ 7.c3 Qb6 8.Nd2 (8...d6? 9.Nc4 Qd8 10.Nb5+-) 8...a6 9.Qg4 with a clear or almost clear advantage. Work on this variation with your computers a bit, and you can happily disregard the other 221 and 3/4 pages of the book if your only concern is how to face the "Lazy Man". The book does mention this line (though it's hidden almost as well as a government employee's emails, for possibly the same reason), and what little it has to say about it isn't encouraging.
Giddins, who translated Bronznik's original work (published in German in 2004) and updated it for this edition, starts by saying that 6.b4 is Stockfish's top choice in the position (even though it doesn't merit a letter in the chapter - it's stuck between White's options "B" and "C", all of which are subsidiary to the chapter's main line with 6.c3 - and it doesn't show up in the index, either) and that "a top-class GM" of his acquaintance analyzed it seriously and "considered it to be promising". That's his intro to the move; the outro offers the altogether unsatisfactory remark that "6.b4 is a definitely a move the black player would be advised to take a proper look at." (Well, yes...but isn't this the author's job? We're not talking about a line where this is just one of Black's options; there are NO alternatives given in the context of the book's repertoire and the problematic line is suggested by the computer from the start - after 4...Bc5 - and has the backing of his anonymous high-level GM acquaintance.)
In the interest of benefiting prospective non-buyers playing White against this nuisance system I'll carry the line a bit further: 9...Kf8 10.Qg3 d6 11.N2b3 Nf6 12.Nxc5 dxc5 13.Nb3 Nbd7 14.f3. White is a pawn down but has the bishop pair, targets, a safer king and will soon enjoy a threatening lead in development. Black isn't losing, but his position is both objectively and subjectively unpleasant. Worse still, White's research time is negligible, while Black has to worry about 200+ pages worth of material.
White lived happily (and lazily) ever after.
The end.