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Slay the Sicilian!
by Timothy Taylor
I was idly looking at World Champion Anatoly Karpov's book, My Best
Games and I came across a line that absolutely stunned me, that I quote in
full below:
"I have always felt it completely unnecessary for White to rush
headlong into a maelstrom of forced variations with his first moves in
the Sicilian. His superiority in the centre gives him the possibility of
resolving any problem by solid positional play."
While I have always admired Karpov's positional play and his relentless
technique, I've never been a fan in the way I am a fan of the wizard of Riga.
But after being rescued from a desperate situation, I not only became a big
fan, I have made Karpov (like Keres in Slay the Spanish) the hero of this
entire book!
I found Karpov's repertoire to be amazingly human and easy to learn and
absolutely deadly over the board. It seems that no one really plays this way
anymore instead everyone is out there with their laptops rushing headlong
into that "maelstrom of forced variations". Thus virtually none of the
opponents I encountered were prepared for what I would describe as solid
positional play with a drop of poison. However (I couldn't help myself!),
against the Dragon I also offer an alternative, non-Karpovian method, the
Alekhine Attack, which so suited my style I barely had to study it!
In any case, each chapter starts with a Karpov game, and then continues with
relevant games from renowned GMs and World Champions, as well as a
number of my own efforts from the trenches.
Let's take a look at this repertoire, which I stress is easy to learn and very
very effective. The Sicilian naturally divides into six types of opening,
according to pawn structure, represented by the first six chapters of this book,
with a seventh "catch all" chapter devoted to unusual odds and ends.
Taylor, T Gutman, J
SCCF Championship, Los Angeles, 2011
Sicilian Defence [B58]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nf3
I considered playing Louma's 7.Nxc6, but I thought I might never get another
6...e5, so I should play the objectively best move.
7...Be7
And was immediately rewarded! People don't know their Boleslavsky!
8.Bg5 Be6 9.0-0 a6
If 9...0-0, I was ready with 10.a3!.
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10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Nd5
[FEN "r2qk2r/1p3ppp/p1npbb2/3Np3/4P3/
5N2/PPP1BPPP/R2Q1RK1 b kq - 0 11"]
White has conquered d5 and one can't see anything Black got out of it: the
white knight looks better than both black bishops!
11...Ne7
So Black tries to get rid of it!
If instead 11...0-0, then 12.Nxf6+(12.c3 is possible with a typical plus-equals
squeeze position) 12...Qxf6 (12...gxf6 is ugly but necessary) 13.Qxd6 Qf4
14.Rfe1 and no compensation for the pawn can be found, as 14...Qxe4 fails to
15.Bxa6.; Another try is 11...Bxd5 12.Qxd5 Qc7 13.c3 0-0 14.Nd2 Rad8
15.Bf3 Bg5 16.Rfd1, but then White had the typical annoying pull with Black
having no compensation for the weaknesses at d5 and d6 White converted in
36 moves in W.Kobese-Cho.Stanley, African Championship, Cairo 1998.
12.Nxf6+ gxf6
[FEN "r2qk2r/1p2np1p/p2pbp2/4p3/4P3/
5N2/PPP1BPPP/R2Q1RK1 w kq - 0 13"]
13.Qd2
I spotlight the pawns at d6 and f6.
13...Qc7
Black can't free himself: 13...d5 14.Qh6! dxe4 15.Rad1 Nd5 (or 15...Qc7
16.Qxf6 with destruction) 16.c4! exf3 17.Bxf3 and White recovers his piece
with an overwhelming positional advantage, as Black is unlikely ever to
castle in this game.
14.Rfd1 Rd8
14...0-0-0 is relatively best, but after 15.c4 White has locked down d5 and
retains the safer king.
15.c4!
[FEN "3rk2r/1pq1np1p/p2pbp2/4p3/2P1P3/
5N2/PP1QBPPP/R2R2K1 b k - 0 15"]
Since the c-pawn is immune, Black will not be getting...d6-d5 in any time
soon!
15...Ng6 16.Rac1 Rd7 17.g3 h5 18.h4 f5 19.Ng5
Perhaps 19.exf5 Bxf5 20.Re1 Rg8 21.Ng5 f6 22.Qd5 is simpler, when Black's
position is full of holes.
19...f4 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Rc3
Another way is 21.c5 dxc5 22.Qxd7+Qxd7 23.Rxd7 Kxd7 24.Rxc5 Kd6
25.Rc3 with a big endgame plus, but I wanted to "Fracture him!" Fischer-
style in the middlegame.
21...Qc5 22.Kg2 fxg3
22...Ke7 is necessary, but White follows with something like Bf3 and a2-
a3/b2-b4 ultimately Black is fighting a losing battle, in view of his
weaknesses at d6 and h5 and unsafe king in the middle.
23.fxg3 Rg7 24.Qxd6!
[FEN "4k2r/1p4r1/p2Qp1n1/2q1p2p/2P1P2P/
2R3P1/PP2B1K1/3R4 b k - 0 24"]
24...Qxd6
White refutes the demonstration 24...Nxh4+25.Kh3 Qf2 with 26.Bxh5+!
Rxh5 27.Qxe6+Re7 (27...Kf8 28.Rd8#is drastic) 28.Qg8+Qf8 29.Rd8+
Kxd8 30.Qxf8+, winning the queen.
25.Rxd6
So I got an ending after all but Black's pawns are so weak, there is no doubt
White has a winning position.
25...Ke7
The same counter also fails here: 25...Nxh4+26.Kh3 Ng6 27.Rcd3!, when
White forces the exchange of rooks and wins cleanly; e.g. 27...Rh6 28.Rd8+
Ke7 29.R3d7+Kf6 30.Rxg7 Kxg7 31.Rd7+etc.
26.Rb6 Nf4+ 27.Kf1
27.Kf3? Rxg3+was evidently Black's hope.
27...Nxe2 28.Kxe2 Kf6
The simple variation 28...Rb8 29.Rcb3 Kf6 30.c5 Rc7 31.c6 demonstrates that
Black's position is indefensible.
29.Rf3+ 1-0
Pawns start dropping, the first with check.
The main thing I learned from writing this book is that the Sicilian's
reputation is far greater than its actual danger. You hear all this nonsense
about how you have to be booked up thirty moves, and all the top players
have everything memorized, so it's far too risky to play the Open Sicilian; you
should play it safe with the Closed and hope for an equal position and yet
that image of the Sicilian as some monstrous Hydra is simply not true.
For one thing, if the monster existed in reality as opposed to reputation, I
certainly would never have scored 71% against higher-rated opposition!
Moving up the scale, Karpov would never have scored like he did recall that
he never, ever lost in the 6 Be2 e5 Najdorf, while playing the best in the
world and using the same line over and over. According to "Sicilian
reputation" he would have lost to some "forced variation" somewhere along
the road but that never happened, because the Be2 line does not lead to
forced variations!
Yes, there are "memory variations" in many lines of the Sicilian, but it's easy
to avoid them, as my recommended repertoire does. And when I played this
way, I found that my opponents (who wore out their brains learning lines I
did not play) were disoriented by the fact that they had to think with their own
head, and could not rely on forced computer-generated variations. At that
point, usually half the battle was won, and I could (most of the time at least!)
take care of the other half.
Order Slay the Sicilian! (Ebook)
by Timothy Taylor
Order Slay the Sicilian!
by Timothy Taylor
A PDF file of this month's column, along with all previous columns, is
available in the ChessCafe.com Archives.
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