an anti-Sicilian repertoire for White Gawain Jones how to beat the • • • ICI Ian defence an anti-Sicilian repertoire for White EVERYMAN CHESS Gloucester Publishers pic www.everymanchess.com First published in 2011 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers plc), Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OAT Copyright© 2011 Gawain Jones The right of Gawain Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permis­ sion of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 85744 663 0 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480. All other sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, North burgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V OAT tel: 020 7253 7887 fax: 020 7490 3708 email: [email protected]; website: www.everymanchess.com Everyman is the registered trade mark of Random House Inc. and is used in this work under licence from Random House Inc. Everyman Chess Series Chief advisor: Byron Jacobs Commissioning editor: John Emms Assistant editor: Richard Palliser Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton. Cover design by Horatio Monteverde. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, Bungay, Suffolk. Contents Bibliography 4 Introduction 5 1 Moscow Variation: 3 . ...�:Jd7 7 2 Moscow Variation: 3 ... ..td7 i.xd7+4 �xd7 41 3 Moscow Variation: 3 ... i.d7 4..txd7+ ttlxd7 63 4 The Hybrid Variation 90 5 Rossolimo Variation: 3 ... g6 4 ..txc6 bxc6 122 6 Rossolimo Variation: 3 ...g6 4 ..txc6 dxc6 145 7 Rossolimo Variation: 3 ... e6 179 8 Rossolimo Variation: Other Third Moves for Black 203 9 King's Indian Attack with ...dS 237 10 King's Indian Attack without ...ds 286 11 Other Second Moves for Black 324 Index of Variations 346 Index of Complete Games 349 Bibliography Books Anti-Sicilians: A Guide fo r Black, Dorian Rogozenko (Gambit 2003) Beating the Anti-Sicilians, Joe Gallagher (Batsford 1994) Dangerous Weapons: Anti-Sicilians, John Emms, Peter Wells and Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess 2009} Dangerous Weapons: The Sicilian, John Emms and Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess 2006) Dismantling the Sicilian, Jesus De la Villa (New in Chess 2009} Grandmaster Repertoire 6 - The Sicilian Defence, Lubomir Ftacnik (Quality Chess 2010) Starting Out: King's Indian Attack, John Emms (Everyman Chess 2005) Starting Out: The Accelerated Dragon, Andrew Greet (Everyman Chess 2008} The il.bsSicilia n, Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess 2005) The Chess Advantage in Black and White, Larry Kaufman (Random House 2004) Electronic Resources Chess Base 10, ChessPublishing.com, Mega Database 2010 (ChessBase), New in Chess Yearbook and The Week in Chess 4 Introduction Welcome to this Anti-Sicilian repertoire. The Sicilian is Black's most common response to 1 e4 and a real headache for most players. Of course we can try the Open Sicilian, but this requires a thorough knowledge of each different Sicilian variation, as well as keeping on top of all the theoretical developments. If you are a Sicilian player yourself, you will also realize another practical problem: the lines of the Open Sicilian require so much knowl­ edge and experience that players on the black side spend their whole lives debating differ­ ent move order nuances on internet forums and studying new games so that they are very well prepared for their particular variation. Thus a Dragon player will have played hun­ dreds of games in the Yugoslav Attack and understands the resulting positions, but a white player also has to contend with the Najdorf, the Sveshnikov, the Classical, the Kan, the Tai­ manov and many other lines. However, often those who employ the Sicilian as Black have failed to look at the sidelines in any depth. In this book I am suggesting lines that promise White good strategic chances. I've also tried to keep Black's counterplay under wraps, which will really frustrate the average Sicil­ ian player. Of course I have also made sure that we have attacking chances of our own. With this repertoire you will be able to dictate the nature of play yourself and with greater understanding in and greater experience of the resulting structures, your results should be very promising. The Structure of this Book I am recommending a repertoire with 3 .tbs against 2 ...d6 and 2 .. .'�Jc6.The Moscow Varia­ tion (1 e4 cS 2 tbf3 d6 3 .tbs+) has a reputation as a route to drawish positions, but as I prove in this book, White can play these positions for a win and its reputation is ill de­ served. A lot of Sicilian players really dislike playing the arising positions as they are de­ prived of their typical counterplay. The Rossolimo Variation (1 e4 cs 2 tbf3 tt:Jc6 3 .tbs) is the most theoretical part of the repertoire and has been discussed in countless super-grandmaster games. I advocate tak­ ing on c6 and playing against Black's structural weaknesses on the queenside. In both the Rosso limo and the Moscow Variation we will be utilizing many ideas of the Russian Grand­ master Sergei Rublevsky. Against 1 e4 cs 2 tbf3 e6 it is harder to find a good Anti-Sicilian, but I like my suggestion of the King's Indian Attack. The lines examined in the two chapters on it are more ideas­ based than theoretical, but have served me well for the past ten years. Finally, I wrap up my coverage of the Sicilian from White's perspective with a look at Black's minor lines. 5 How to Beat the Sicilian Defence Acknowledgements This book would not have seen the light of day had it not been for the help of many people. First of all, thanks to John Emms and Richard Palliser for help with the technical side of the book and providing reference material. I wish to thank all the members of the Wellington Chess Scene, particularly Lin, Ross, Alan, Maria and Bill. Without them my sojourn in New Zealand would have been a lot less enjoyable. An extra thanks to Bill for his book sugges­ tions, his software and most enjoyable coaching sessions. Finally, I wish to thank my fian­ cee Sue who put up with my long hours writing this book, while I was fighting against the deadline(s) and wasn't much help doing anything else. She also helped out with the initial editing of the book, allowing you, the reader, to see this book before 2012! I hope you will find this repertoire useful. I have certainly had fun finding some new ideas in order to cause Black problems. Indeed, I hope you manage to employ my new ideas before Sicilian players check the book too! Gawain Jones London, March 2011 6 Chapter One , Moscow Variation: 3 ••. l2Jd7 1 e4 cs 2 tbf3 d6 3 .ibS+tbd7 squared bishop. This is due to the fact that the bishop will no longer be hemmed in by its own pawns on c4 and e4. Game 5 sees Magnus Carlsen allow the exchange on cs when we can take control of the useful es­ square for the white knight. Although Black eventually triumphs, he had rather an awkward position out of the opening. In Game 6 Black takes a rather poisonous pawn leaving White with a huge initiative, while Game 7 sees Black lose further time in the opening trying to keep a solid posi­ tion. The structure in this game is different to those seen in the rest of the chapter, but This is Black's most aggressive response is one in which White has good chances for to the Moscow Variation. Black wishes to an advantage. Finally, in Game 9 we see keep his light-squared bishop for dynamic what happens when Black opts for a counterchances. However, this approach Dragon set-up. slows down Black's development and thus is a risky strategy. Normally we will capture Repertoire Outline on d7 when forced to by ...a6, leaving Black with the two bishops, but we'll use our lead 3 ... tbd7 4 d4 tt::Jgf6 in development to create an early initiative .. This has been Black's most common re­ In Games 1-4, 8 and 10, we reach a Ma­ sponse and was played by the strongest roczy bind structure in which we hope to chess player of all time, Garry Kasparov profit from having exchanged the light- amongst many others. It will be featured in 7 How to Beat the Sicilian Defence Games 6 to 10. Black also has: Black's most common response, ignor­ a) 4 ...a6 has to be taken seriously as it ing the pawn on offer. Alternatively: was the choice of the very strong, young a) Taking the pawn with the S ... tt:Jxe4?! Norwegian, Magnus Carlsen. After 5 i.xd7+ of Game 6 is very risky, but has been played i.xd7 6 dxc5 Black has a choice: either to by a few grandmasters, the highest-rated cede control over e5 or else lose time with being the American Alex Yermolinsky. his queen. This is seen in Game 5. b) 5 ... a6 is quite fashionable and has b) 4... cxd4 is a very logical move and of­ even been tried by Garry Kasparov. Black ten transposes to the mainline after 5 �xd4 gains the bishop-pair, but allows White a tt:Jf66 o-o.