starting out: the sicilian JOHN EMMS EVERYMAN CHESS Everyman Publishers pic www.everymanbooks.com First published 2002 by Everyman Publishers pIc, formerly Cadogan Books pIc, Gloucester Mansions, 140A Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8HD Copyright © 2002 John Emms Reprinted 2002 The right of John Emms 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 permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 857442490 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, Gloucester Mansions, 140A Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8HD tel: 020 7539 7600 fax: 020 7379 4060 email: [email protected] website: www.everymanbooks.com EVERYMAN CHESS SERIES (formerly Cadogan Chess) Chief Advisor: Garry Kasparov Commissioning editor: Byron Jacobs Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton Production by Book Production Services Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd., Trowbridge, Wiltshire Everyman Chess Starting Out Opening Guides: 1857442342 Starting Out: The King's Indian Joe Gallagher 1857442296 Starting Out: The French Byron Jacobs 1857442547 Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian Chris Ward Books for players serious about improving their game: 1857442261 Starting Out in Chess Byron Jacobs 1857442318 Tips for Young Players Matthew Sadler 1857442369 Improve Your Opening Play Chris Ward 1857442415 Improve Your Middlegame Play Andrew Kinsman 1857442466 Improve Your Endgame Play Glenn Flear 1857442237 Mastering the Opening Byron Jacobs 1857442288 Mastering the Middlegame Angus Dunnington 1857442334 Mastering the Endgame Glenn Flear 1857442385 Simple Chess John Emms 185744115 X Learn Chess: A Complete Course Alexander & Beach 1857440722 How to Win at Chess Daniel King 1857442970 Concise Chess Openings Neil McDonald Popular puzzle books: 1857442733 Multiple Choice Chess Graeme Buckley 1857442962 It's Your Move Chris Ward 1857442784 It's Your Move (Improvers) Chris Ward Contents Bibliography 6 Introduction 7 1 The Dragon Variation 10 2 The Najdorf Variation 30 3 The Scheveningen Variation 52 4 The Sveshnikov Variation 74 5 The Classical Variation 89 6 Other Open Sicilians 106 7 Bb5 Systems 134 8 The c3 Sicilian 146 9 Other Systems 159 Solutions to Exercises 174 Index of Complete Games 175 Bibliography Books Accelerated Dragons, John Donaldson & Jeremy Silman (Everyman 1998) Beating the Sicilian 3, John Nunn & Joe Gallagher (Batsford 1995) c3 Sicilian, Joe Gallagher (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Bb5 Sicilian, Steffen Pedersen (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Najdorf, Tony Kosten (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Sicilian Scheveningen, Steffen Pedersen (Everyman 1998) Easy Guide to the Sveshnikov Sicilian, Jacob Aagaard (Everyman 2000) Encyclopaedia ofChess Openings volumes A-E (Informator 2001) Improve Your Opening Play, Chris Ward (Everyman 2000) Mastering the Opening, Byron Jacobs (Everyman 2001) Nunn's Chess Openings, John Nunn, Graham Burgess, John Emms & Joe Gallagher (Everyman/Gambit 1999) Sicilian Grand Prix Attack, James Plaskett (Everyman 2000) Sicilian Kalashnikov, Jan Pinski & Jacob Aagaard (Everyman 2001) The Closed Sicilian, Daniel King (Chess Press 1997) The Complete Najdorf: 6 Bg5, John Nunn (Batsford 1996) The Complete Richter-Rauzer, Peter Wells (Batsford 1998) The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld (Ox­ ford 1996) The Taimanov Sicilian, Graham Burgess (Gambit 2000) Winning with the Sicilian Dragon 2, Chris Ward (Batsford 2001) Periodicals ChessBase Magazine Informator The Week in Chess Introduction It's probably safe to say that the Sicilian Defence is the most famous chess opening of all time. It's certainly the most popular: almost a quarter of all games in chess are Sicilian Defences. This is a pretty large fraction considering the large pool of openings from which each player can choose. If you play 1 e4, the likelihood of facing a Sicilian Defence is approximately fifty percent. Why the immense popularity? The easiest way to address this ques­ tion is to take a look at some simple opening positions. Diagram 1 Diagram 2 White plays 1 e4 Black plays the Sicilian 1 e4 is one of the two most popular opening moves for White (the other is 1 d4). With 1 e4 White gains some control over central squares and open lines of development for his queen and fI-bishop. Give White another free move and what would he like to play? The answer is 2 d4!, which controls more central squares and opens a line of development for the cl-bishop. With control of the centre and open lines for easy development, White is assured of a good position from the opening moves. 7 Starting Out: The Sicilian Black has many possible replies to 1 e4, but only two of these both gain a foothold in the centre and dissuade White from carrying out his 'threat'. These two choices are 1...e5 (symmetrical king's pawn) and 1...c5 (the Sicilian). It's no coincidence that these are the two most popular defences to 1 e4, but what is interesting is that the Sicil­ ian occurs twice as often as 1...e5. Let's take a look at the position after 1...c5 (Diagram 2). Black has taken control of the crucial d4-square and is ready to an­ swer d2-d4 with ...cxd4, thus eliminating one of White's central pawns and lessening White's control of the centre. The 'advantage' the Sicil­ ian has over, say, 1...e5 is that Black is able to unbalance the position with an asymmetrical pawn structure from a very early stage. This allows both sides the opportunity to play for a win from the very start. White is less likely to acquire a 'risk free' edge because the position will always contain some imbalance. Pawn Structures Two-thirds of this book deals with 'Open Sicilian' positions, in which White plays 2 Nf3 followed by 3 d4. This is by far the most common way for White to meet the Sicilian. White opens more lines of devel­ opment and attempts to exploit the fact that he will be ahead on de­ velopment. Let's take a look at the possible opening moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 (Diagram 3) Diagram 3 An Open Sicilian White is ahead in development and can develop more freely. Black, however, has a structural advantage in that he has an extra central pawn, which gives him long-term chances of taking control of the cen­ tre. A typical imbalance has arisen. The onus is on White to use his development advantage in order to secure an early initiative. If White 8 Introduction plays passively or his initiative runs out of steam, then typically it's Black, with the better pawn structure, who has the long-term chances. Thus it's quite rare for a state of 'dull equality' to arise. Of­ ten in a Sicilian, if Black 'equalises', he is already slightly better! This structural advantage is seen in most Open Sicilian lines: for example, the Dragon, the Najdorf and the Scheveningen Variations. The major exception to this rule is the Sveshnikov Variation, in which Black ac­ cepts pawn weaknesses for activity. Variations A word on how this book is set out. In the first five chapters we shall be taking a look at the most common variations of the Open Sicilian: the Dragon, the Najdorf, the Scheveningen, the Sveshnikov and the Classical. There are naturally many similar characteristics to these variations but they all contain their own distinctive flavour. In Chap­ ter 6 we move on to slightly less common variations of the Open Sicil­ ian: the Taimanov, the Accelerated Dragon, the Four Knights, the Kan and the Kalashnikov. In Chapters 7-9 we study lines where White avoids the complexities of the Open Sicilian in favour of quieter lines. These include Bb5 systems (Chapter 7), early c2-c3 systems (Chapter 8) and finally some more unusual systems white systems (Chapter 9). Just to give you an insight into how much 'theory' has amassed on the Sicilian over the years, I'm currently holding a heavyweight 320-page monograph written not on the Sicilian, or even a variation of the Sicil­ ian, but on a sub-variation of a variation of the Sicilian! By covering all the main lines of the Sicilian, it wasn't my intention to give a vast collection of theory, nor to arm the reader with a white or black reper­ toire. This book very much aims to be an introduction to the main lines and ideas of ~he Sicilian and to help readers choose variations they think will suit their style. I've used illustrative games that show some of the more entertaining and instructive Sicilian battles, not necessarily ones which reflect the current state of theory. Finally, I would like to thank Byron Jacobs for his help on this project and special thanks go to Christine for her proof-reading, patience and support as the deadline approached. John Emms, Kent, April 2002 9 Chapter One The Dragon Variation • The Yugoslav Attack • The Classical Variation • The Levenfish Attack • White Plays g2-g3 The Dragon Variation 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 (Diagram 1) Diagram 1 The starting position for the Sicilian Dragon The Dragon Variation is the Sicilian in its most natural and logical form. Black develops his pieces on their most active squares.