As a Sicilian player, there are a number of sidelines I hate to see. 2.c3 doesn’t really bother me, since I play that myself and know the system well, but when white plays 2.Nc3, concealing his intentions and waiting for me to commit, I sometimes find myself playing a position I’m not terribly pleased with, particularly if white then goes in for a grand prix attack. Generally, I play the Sveshnikov, which means I have to be prepared for a Rossolimo as well, but for some reason the grand prix attack bothers me while the Rossolimo hasn’t posed me any issues. I know the ideas behind the grand prix, I sometimes play it myself, but that wall of pawns is menacing and if I’ve already committed myself to certain piece placements then my dark squares become weak and I feel like a sitting duck to obvious attacking plans. Well… I will never suffer such passivity again. 2…a6! is the answer! This bit of wisdom was imparted to me by Asa Hoffman recently, and in the few blitz sessions I have played recently I can tell you that it has helped me get over the grand prix hurdle. It basically invites white to play a Closed Sicilian, when black is able to get rapid expansion on the queen-side with a nice solid position with moves like: b5, e6, Ne7, and then break with d5 and you’re equal.
This idea of a useful but non-committal waiting move is so obvious I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. Naturally, if white wishes to play an open sicilian you may chose to go into a Kan or Taimanov. These two games illustrate the basic ideas, but any Sicilian player probably sees my point from the above text alone. 2.Nc3 has been recommended by a number of publications recently, and I can tell you that several of my friends play it exclusively when approaching the Sicilian with white.
7 Responses to “An Antidote for Sideline Sicilians”
I have a video from Nigel Davies called Sicilicide or is it Silicide and against almost all variations you play Nc3.
I created this collection here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1008741
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.Nc3 d6 (a6 & d6 met with a fienchetto )
(9) Tolnai,Tibor – Bilek,Istvan [B50]
Kecskemet Kecskemet (13), 06.1990
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 8.Nd5 e6 9.Ne3 Qc7 10.0–0 Bg7 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Nc4 d5 13.exd5 cxd5 14.Bxd5 exd5 15.Qxd5 Bc6 16.Re1+ Kf8 17.Qc5+ Ne7 18.Bf4 Qb7 19.Rxe7 1–0
http://takchess.blogspot.com/search?q=silicide
Notes from my older blog.
The idea isn’t to play 2…a6 against 2.Nf3- when I’m willing to play mainline sicilians or a rossolimo.
The idea is to play 2…a6 when white plays 2.Nc3.
2.Nc3 can be annoying because if white wants to play the grand prix it takes away the possibility of black playing 2…d5, and it also is just an annoying waiting move otherwise- so- if black plays 2…a6, b5, e6, Ne7, d5 then he gets a simple game in a closed sicilian with equality out of the gates.
In your lines- white plays 2.Nf3- which I didn’t mean to address in this post, since after 2.Nf3 I’m happy to continue in mainlines.
whoops. now I see. 8)
How do you get those game play diagrams?
Top secret! No just kidding. You’d have to ask my web development guy but I think we use a “widget.” JanisamTesla, how do we do this?
An easier way to get pgn files viewed is to use the “chess tempo” javasript code, which they make free and available provided you don’t use it on a for profit website. It’s what I used to use on my old blog, and you can find the code and instructions here:
http://chesstempo.com/pgn-usage.html
We use a plugin called Embed Chessboard, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/embed-chessboard/
It’s clean and simple and fits the blog. We might eventually switch to chesstempo.