Closed, Chameleon Variation

With 3. Nge2 White develops the king's knight without committing it to f3 or deciding the pawn structure. Andrew Soltis named it the Chameleon System because White can still turn to a fianchetto Closed Sicilian with 4. g3 or enter Open Sicilian territory with 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4. The same idea appears in the Keres Variation, 2. Ne2, where Nbc3 follows. The flexibility has costs. Closed lines with an early Nge2 are not considered very testing for Black. Black can also choose the order of transposition. After 3...g6, the most frequent reply, 4. d4 leads to an Accelerated Dragon in which the knight on c3 already blocks the c-pawn, so White cannot set up the Maróczy Bind.

The other common answers are 3...e6 and 3...d6, which prepare Taimanov- or Scheveningen-type structures if White plays d4. The engine's preferred move is 3...Nd4, which hits the e2-knight's squares at once. White scores somewhat better than Black in the Lichess database, and the engine rates the position as roughly balanced.