Sicilian Kan

Hello, Can anybody help me,

I am trying to learn a defense called the Sicilian Kan, because it is part of my repertoire from an opening course, which I have got too learn, do any of you guys know anything good or bad about this defense, any help you guys might have can be only good for me cheers!!

Try the book by Johan Hellsten, I'm currently reading it and it seems to be easy to absorb.

Of course, when you play the Kan, I hope you do realize that it has you playing the black pieces with a space disadvantage and delayed development. The games ARE however quite rich in strategic content and less "wham, bam, thank you m'am"  between two decent players.

If (and only if) your chess.com rating accurately tracks your current playing strength, I'd recommend you read up any other system where you can flex your tactical muscles from the get-go ... and come back to the Kan when you're a little stronger.

The Kan has proven itself to be a very good opening, although a bit passive compared to other sicilians. The thing that puts me off from playing it is that white can almost force you into playing a hedgehog setup. I don't think there is anything wrong with the hedgehog, but sitting tight and waiting for white to do something isn't exactly my playing style.

I also recommend playing a different system if you are still a beginner. The Kan is good, but I think it is more important to play something more active and aggressive, where basic chess principles matter more, and where you can get more play in the centre. Therefore I think 1...e5 as black is a great choice for everyone, but especially those who are class B or weaker.

Make learning the Sicilian your long term aim. ALSO learn some 1...e5 stuff as well. On chess site like this you can play loads of 1...c5 stuff and 1 ...e5 stuff. Join or start a themed tournament. I've just started another Kan tournament for ten players. IF you go to the ongoing tournament section you will see it.

You will find when you play the Sicilian, a lot of players will play less optimally, so called Anti Sicilians , to avoid the complexity of variations like the Kan - this you should welcome  - it shows respect for the proper Sicilians. I've seen stats where the Kan is the greatest points scorer for the intermediate player.

Something I've only become aware of. The naming of variations is a useful handle for discussion , but the Sicilian as so many overlapping variations, so play it with flexibility in mind.

I put off playing the Sicilian for years - bad mistake. When you finally play the Sicilian againt 1e4 and you KNOW its the best defence, you have arrived.....(at least at the departure platform :-) )

I too strongly recomend you play something other than Sicilian-Kan at your level.

Check out this thread for a detailed examination of other openings you can play as black against both e4 and d4.  It helped me jump over a hundred points here and more OTB.  The second post is the most important and a lot of players have taken his advice (although I would still learn the CK first before rolling Sicilian).

I do need to learn the kan, because it's part of the master course, which I am learning, which gives you a full opening repertoire for black and white, 

I have been playing the kan now for several weeks on this site plus others, I am now starting to win with it a bit more 

Thanks for your wise words those would be mine, this is my first time playing any Sicilian before but felt really good, on this new bunch of games that I have started on gameknot, felt very good, once I had developed my pieces they all seemed to co-ordinate quite well, my middle game felt good and in control had some good moves with knights and bishops I might have made some wrong moves in some games, I might have got carried away a bit, but now I am coming towards the end games in most matches this is not my best part of chess. lol will or may lose more than win in end games!! 

I don't think you should play something just because some "Master Course" says so. I agree with Shivsky, you should be playing something that uses more basic principles.

But what am I going to ignore the course which I purchased, which in my opinion makes sense to learn something early in my chess,  must admit I struggled to absorb this Sicilian kan, but each game I start feels better, got too start some where, might as well learn something hard than something easier.

Well I think it makes more sense to start with the basics to try and make your learning experience as efficient as possible rather than trying to learn the hard stuff 1st just because you want to get your money's worth out of a course.

Hi westy1, I have played a few simple white openings, like the vienna or the grand prix and a few more, but I well believe I need a repertoire of my own, some or most being openings or defenses, which are not common, you might call them unusual, with openings or defenses that are not known that well, can work to your advantage.

What openings or defenses are you talking about as easy to learn westy1?

I have to disagree with most of the other opinions here. If you were playing something super-tactical like the Sveshnikov Sicilian, I would probably tell you to find another opening! However, the Kan is a good flexible opening that has a nice blend of positional and dynamic middlegame play without being too theoretical.

The Kan has a lot in common with other Sicilians, so playing it will teach you a lot about the Sicilian as a whole. It is solid enough that you should survive the opening without too much trouble, and the flexibility of the middlegame positions allows you to mess around and try out different ideas. For example, Black could play a normal sheveningen/hedgehog structure with pawns on d6, e6 and with Be7, but he could also play ...g6 and ...Bg7. (I like the latter setup against the Maroczy Bind because there isn't a lot of urgency to fend off an immediate central or kingside attack, so Black can usually defend his d6-pawn with a rook on d8 and/or organize an f7-f5 pawn break since exf5 can be met with ...gxf5 with a solid central pawn mass and an open g-file.) Or he can play one of those quick ...b5+...Bb7 lines and maybe even throw in that crazy ...h5-h4-h3 advance.

It's really not so difficult to learn if you just have the right mindset and are not afraid of a few losses at first.

I don't think it's necessary to only play classical openings. Besides, you can get plently of experience playing that stuff with white against 1...e5 (if you play 1.e4) or 1...d5 (if you play 1.d4). But the more versatile you are as to what kinds of positions you can play comfortably, the better player you will be.

Having said all that, it's true that a lot of people have more than one black opening that they are prepared to play, so maybe you could additionally learn the French or Caro Kann or 1...e5 if you really wanted to branch out.

This is actually one of the simpler Sicilians.  I've been playing it off-and-on over the last year, with mixed results.  I liked it right-off because it's easy to remember, and is a little more direct with its threats than some of the other Sicilians.  The black structure is easy to visualize:

 The aim here is to support the knight with either the b-pawn or the bishop, then either castling queen-side or creating a hedgehog formation on the queen-side and working towards a delayed castle on the king-side.  I find that this opening favors an early attack by black, but is not geared towards withstanding a strong white assault.  Most of the time, for me, it has been a race to mate.

 I thought at first that he was taking a course and needed this information to pass it.  Maybe he's not choosing to play it intentionally.

Well if you really want my opinion I don't think you should be delving into any opening very deeply yet, and instead learn stuff like how to develop and control the centre etc in a more straightforward manner after 1.e4 e5, not by learning many specific lines, but by using the most basic principles as guidelines. I really think you'll get a more thorough grounding in the basics by learning the open game 1st. IMHO venturing into stuff like Sicilians and the French below a certain level isn't very wise. Although I admit I know hardly anything about the Kan, just looking at it, it seems too complex and slow for you atm even if it is one of the simpler Sicilians. 

Yeah, you're probably right.