The Sicilian Defence - Fight back and get your Counter Chance!

After the moves 1. e4 c5 Black enters the dangerous waters of the Sicilian Defence, which is probably the best answer for Black against e4 and is one of the best chess openings available for Black. He scores very well with the Sicilian and it is advisable that you study this active defence in any case.

You will definitely need it in the future, I promise. The Sicilian is a sharp weapon for Black with lots of chances and active play.

This dynamic chess defence creates a chess position of imbalance after the pawn on d4 is exchanged (cxd4). Black gets the half-open c-file and chances at the queenside to expand and White has chances in the center and at the kingside. This eventually leads to sharp tactical chess variations.

The Sicilian Defence is a two-edged sword and needs to be handled carefully, but if you need a win you should try your luck with it as you have sufficient chances and it is unlikely that your game will end in a boring draw.

Drawback

But there is a drawback as White can avoid the Open Sicilian to play a quiet positional game of chess. This can be done if he doesn't play d4 at all. In this case Black can't exchange the pawn on d4 against his c-pawn (cxd4) and does not receive the half-open c-file.
White plays d3 later on instead of d4 and will enter a totally different (closed) game all together.

If White does that, you may get a position with the black pieces which you may not like at all and you might run right into the dangerous Grand-Prix-Attack and lose because you get overrun at the kingside.

Look here how White can avoid the Open Sicilian: (in not playing d4 later)
1.e4 c5 2.c3

2. c3 - Variation

Other Variations - avoiding d4

Or play 2.d4 right away - the Smith Morra Gambit

If you are White and want to avoid the Open Sicilian Defence I recommend playing the The Grand-Prix-Attack
(1.e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3.f4) This is very dangerous for Black if he doesn't know it well enough. But you should study it first, of course.

Get a few general ideas

And here you finally see the variations of the Open Sicilian where d4 is played by White and Black exchanges cxd4 and gets the half-open c-file.

Sicilian Defence - most important variations:

2...d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3

1. Najdorf Variation: 5...a6 Get Books/DVD
2. Classical Variation: 5...Nc6 Get Books/DVD
3. Scheveningen Variation: 5...e6 Get Books/DVD
4. Dragon Variation: 5...g6 Get Books/DVD
Yugoslav Attack

2...Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4

2...e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4

Do you have great Ideas and Hints about the Sicilian Defence that will improve the play of others? Share it!

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