"Never go in against a Sicilian when *death* is on the line!"-- from The Princess Bride (via Christine Malcom)
I'll discuss some of the ideas behind the Open Sicilian. I do like the Sicilian Defence, for both sides, but got discouraged by all the theory. Chess magazines are full of quick White kills against the Sicilian. Why do players bother with it, then? Because the longer games where the attack founders and Black wins the endgame are too long for magazines. I'll describe some of the ideas behind the Open Sicilian, then show you some examples of how White can play for a win without having to read Nunn's "Beating the Sicilian 3" every night for the next two years.
Black has alternatives on move 2, but will usually play ...Nf6 on move 4 to prompt:
5. Nc3
The point of Black forcing this move now is to avoid the Maroczy Bind
- see below. The characteristics of most main line Sicilian games can
already be seen.
After 5. Nc3 Black can play:
5...e6 the Scheveningen Variation,
5...g6, the Dragon Variation
5...a6, the Najdorf Variation
Another common move is 5...Nc6, which is usually named for White's reply:
6. Bg5, the Richter-Rauser attack
6. Bc4, the Fischer-Sozin attack
The Sicilian is a vast battleground where many areas have ben mapped in detail and I cannot attempt any sort of summary of the theory in these various lines.
However, there are two general structural differences which can be used to unlock some of the ideas: firstly, where is Black going to put the Bf8? If Black plays ...e6, this is solid, whereas ...g6 and ...Bg7 is much more active, but more risky. These are the Paulsen/Scheveningen and Dragon structures, respectively. Secondly, if White can play c2-c4, this denies Black three of the key opportunities for active play: ...d6-d5, ...b7-b5, and generally chances down the c-file with a minority attack against the pawn on c2. This is the Maroczy Bind, which while not a losing option for Black, is a lot less fun than lines without c2-c4.
There are other structures, like when Black plays ...e7-e5, but
that's too chewy for this booklet. There is a bit of material in the
sections on Knights and Planning.
An introduction to beating the Sicilian
The repertoires below offer you three ways of playing against most of the
semi-open defences, and also tell you what to do against some of the less
common lines after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3.
The three approaches are:
Fast attacking game with pieces
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This document (sicilian_ToC.html) was last modified on 25 Jan 1996 by
Dr. Dave