The Sicilian as played by Non-Masters

check this line out- with prisicion you always get equality or more

In the British Universities Championship recently, only my second OTB tournament, all 5 of my games were different variations of the Sicilian!

Rd 1, won as Black in a Grand Prix vs ~1500
Rd 2, lost as White in an Alapin 2...e6 vs. ~2300
Rd 3, won as Black in a HA Dragon, 5.Nc3 stuff vs. ~1200
Rd 4, drew as White in an Alapin 2...Nf6 vs. ~2100
Rd 5, drew as Black in a Maroczy Bind vs. ~2100

Quite what conclusions you can draw from these results against only fairly strong and very weak players is doubtful, but I didn't lose as Black!

Here's my last round game in that tournament (my rating is an estimate), plus a correspondence win as White in the Sicilian. Personally, I think White has slightly the easier game in the Sicilian, very generally speaking, although I don't think there's a huge amount of difference - White needs to know what he's doing, just as much as Black.

Waller, I didn't know you played BUCA; in fact, our teams played each other in Round 4! All I can say is it takes something special to draw a game against Tom (usually the material imbalances would never allow it!) so well done .

Cheers! Well, my draw against Tom was pretty streaky, it's never a good sign when you have to march your king from g1 to c1 because your entire kingside is shot to pieces! I think you were on Board 4 for Southampton, your game against Charlie looked pretty decent too - he's better than his rating, he used to be in the England squad when younger but stopped playing for a while.

It was a fun tournament, hope to play it again next year - and hopefully it won't be quite as far south - the trip down from Durham was a long one!

I prefer 10.h4 for White avoiding the Chinese dragon, but even more so 9.g4.

Nice game!

I like the Dragon for Black, however ill-advised that may be. It's fun, and what's the point in chess if not to have fun? 

I've been playing in a lot of Dragon-themed tournaments, and here's one game I picked out because I thought it might be interesting. White's pawn storm never got going and I'd like to think I did a good job of exploiting his less-than-perfect play. 

My latest Sicilian over-the-board tournament game.

The following game was played at non-master level.  It was a game I recently played vs Expertise.  I made the draw offer from a position of strength but I have too many games going on and pressing this end-game is not my desire, the chances are not that big for me at all.

I think Black in this game won the debate as far as White vs Black in the Taimanov line in the Hedgehog set-up.  Black was much better in the late opening.  I am sure there were improvements, but Black was fine.

http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=69949916

I changed my line against the Taimanov after playing the sixth move of that game, I now play something much stronger in my opinion. Bd4 looks like a mistake although I was surprised my opponent calculated out the line with Bg5 and even the temporary sacrifice on e4.

I now play 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.O-O-O which I feel gives White chances for advantage, and a much easier game to play.

I threw away the win or the most promising line for a win in that game.  That line I played left me with a better ending but that line was a mistake on my part.  I spent even more time looking at it now.  Black had a winning line and I totally blew that away.  I think after Nb4, Qe7, Rd8.. Black had an excellent game even though black was still in the hedgehog without the breakthrough ... d5 being played yet.

The hedgehog line we ended up playing is covered very well by GM Delchev.

I will keep the winning line

I love this thread, thank you Expertise :)

I was wondering what was your opinion on the Smith-Morra.

Personally I have a really bad opinion, because I think it's just relying on a couple of cool tactics. Black can play d6, a6, Nf6, Bg4 (in this exact order or he gets smashed) and white is simply a pawn down.

Having said that, I'm getting sick of studying a ton of theory for white against the miriad of different sicilians, so I would really like a one-size-fits-all method!

Unfortunately the SMG isn't a one-size-fits-all method because Black can easily enter the Alapin variation and in my opinion the best version of the Alapin with 3...Nf6.

That being said, the actual SMG proper is quite dangerous and there is a lot of unexplored territory. I would never accept it OTB if I were playing the Sicilian.

I think 3...d3 is probably a mistake though.

Can you just give ditch the pawn after taking on b4 and finish your defense?

My first USCF rated game(played only about a month ago) was a Najdorf where I won as black.

Expertise, 

I would be glad to play another game vs you using the Sicilian.  After all, we are both gaining something here.  The biggest drawback to the Sicilian as Black is that MOST games are Anti-Sicilians at our level.  Very few play the open lines as White, at least from my experience.  

I end up playing vs Anti-Sicilian in about 7 out of 10 games.

bladez, sure. My point does not apply to correspondence though.

Expertise, if you accept requests :)

I'd like to know what lines you play against the Sveshnikov and against the Najdorf poisoned pawn.

I'm trying to learn a repertoire for white, based on the open sicilian and Bg5. I share the same feeling that for white it's much easier to play (because of space and development), so preparing against the sicilian should be easier then preparing *with* the sicilian. I feel that white can just do natural moves and still reach a good position, while black MUST know the exact lines.

Uhm, isn't it an unnecessary risk to castle queenside, unless you know the theory really well?

What do you think about this line against the Taimanov, for somebody not booked up?

and from this trying to play f4 and Qf3, treating it like a scheveningen if black plays d6 (keeping his dsB inside)

Sahloknir, thank you for your help, it's appreciated.

For the Najdorf, I've already put a lot of work in the Bg5 variation and in addition to knowing a bit of theory it just feels natural to me. One time at a tournament I wanted to try a sort of hybrid with Bg5, f4 and Qf3, but castling short. Now I'm not saying that what I did was solid, but it was easy to play and it allowed me to throw everything at the black king while escaping the queenside counterplay.

Now I've already learned the main line of Bg5:

Main line is not a problem, what is a pain to prepare against is the poisoned pawn. As white has all the initiative it's supposed to be easier to play for white than it is for black, so I still hope I'll manage to prepare something sufficient for a 2000 level. I'm not playing against GMs so I don't need to know a ton of theory.

For the Sveshnikov I've looked into the 11.Bxb5 sacrifice. It seems promising and fun, so I'll probably just practice with that one against an engine and call it a day.

I've heard that there was a line in the Sveshnikov where black MUST know the theory or it loses quickly, was it possibly this line with the bishop sac? And also there's supposed to be another one where white can force a draw iirc. I have Rogozenko's book but it's not that easy to look it up :)

How the Sicilian can be played by non Masters? Hmm, I can give you a good example. Unfortunately, I am the one who is losing getting a Keres attack over me. That is the link to the question of plutonia in post #65: maybe 8. g4 instead of 0-0.

I made some wrong moves, but that is exactly one of the reasons that I am not a master. :-)