Sicilian Defence: Marshall Counter Attack

I was trained in the English opening and the Sicilian Dragon. I soon moved over to the othe Bishop pawn and learned the Bird and the dutch. As for my defense I still play the Dragon. Recently; however, I stumbled upon Mashall's counter attack and loved the quasi gambit looking position.

I would like to think this isnt so bad but it isnt usually. The top 3 lines following Bb5+ all put Black at <30% winning. Lucky for me most players i encounter play 4. e5 rather than taking d5.  To my glee 4. e5 rusults in >60% win rate for black.


I dont know the history of this defence, so what is its history? Why would anyone not play 4. exd besides lack of knowlede. White gains a lot of centre control and has the greatest advantage even without prior knowledge. Please halp :P

Is that really an independent opening? Is it really a sicilian?

The position after 4. e5 can also be reached from an advance french, when you have a gambit with 4. ... cxd4 5. Bd3 Nc6 7. a3.

If you add some more moves it is likely that even in the line after exd5 you might transpose to a regular french. In case of white's Nf3 on g1 and the other one having moved already to d2 it is a french Tarrasch position.

To me this looks like some special move order.

By the way if you look into the chess.com online database after 5. Bb5+ Bd7 black scored 50%, however there have been only 15 games, and after 4. e5 score is 50% too.

Anyway, why do you spend so much effort on openings?

Maybe because the opening is important if you do not want to get blown out of the water? Maybe because the character of the opening has great impact on the character of the rest of the game?

I know how important the opening is, however, the OP is rated ~1200 USCF according to his profile. So I was thinking 4.5 years back (and still do...) that there are more important things to learn than opening lines which are not in their normal repertoire and besides will transpose into lines of other openings, in this case different lines of french or sicilian....

Not really at sub-2000 ratings, it's not/doesn't.

I had a book about this counter Marshall Gambit, available both in the Sicilian, and in the French (3.Nc3 c5). I liked these as being active defenses as a surprise weapon. Marshall played these systems often gambiting the c5 pawn. In blitz, or at club level, this could be an option, imo...