The Complete Beginner Guide To The Sicilian (part 1)

As many of you may know my most viewed blog with over 1,000 views was The Ultimate Beginner Guide To The London System , which was also my very first blog on an opening, know this blog was posted over a year ago and since then I have done another complete opening, The Italian Game today I am doing a new opening so let me introduce you to The Ultimate Beginner Guide To The Sicilian Defense.

And in this blog I’m going to show you all the key variations to this brilliant opening, this isn’t like the  usual a trap blog, its just for showing the main lines/variations including a couple of traps

The Sicilian Defense, is a dynamic opening where black challenges whites center to avoid symmetrical pawn structures and makes counter play. Key ideas include imbalanced positions, with black trying to break whites center and develop on the queen side, while white makes a strong center and king side development. white often has a lead in development, while blacks advantage lies in counterattacking chances and the imbalanced structure, making for complex positions.

What is it?

The Sicilian Defense starts of with 1.e4 and black instead of going for the center more directly with 1...e5, targets the center more indirectly by playing 1…c5, the Sicilian Defense has started.

1. The Classical Variation

After c5 white most often goes 2.Nf3, here blacks most common response is Nc6, The Classical Variation, white goes 3.d4 cxd4 is most common, 4.Nxd4, the most popular response is e5 attacking the knight, 5.Nxc6 bxc6 white goes 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Bb4 and here white has several options, including 8.O-O ,Bg5 or Bd2, anyway for the most part black has the advantage of 50% win rate to whites 45% in this position.

Instead of 7.Bc4 white also goes 7.Bg5, then black goes Be7 is most common 8.Bc4 O-O 9.O-O Bb7 and white goes 10.f4 exf4, here black has a large advantage of 53% to whites 43%.

Instead of 4...e5, the Lowenthal Variation, black also goes Nf6, here white goes 5.Nc3 black often goes e5 white goes 6.Ndb5 black responds with d6 7.Bg5 black goes a6 8.Na3 b5 white most often goes 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6, overall here white has a slight advantage, 48% to blacks 45%, but really its rather slim so it can tip anywhere.

Now here comes a trap that I know that you guys will like a lot… Instead of going 5...e5, the Lasker-Pelican Variation, black can go d6, the most common response is 6.Be3, and here black instead of going d6 can go Ng5, setting up a trap, white often goes 7.Bg5, not wanting to trade there bishop, black goes Qb6 and here many players play 8.Nxc6! Losing to Qxf2#.

Even if white doesn’t fall for the trap this variation is not that bad anyway for black, giving them a 60% win rate to whites 36%, quite good for black if I say so myself.

2. The Accelerated Dragon

In our previous variation after white goes 4.Nxd4, another common option for black is g6, the Accelerated Dragon, g6 is played because it helps to fianchetto the bishop to the long diagonal on a1-h8, exerting a lot of pressure on white in the long term.

White goes 5.Nc3 and black continues with Bg7, white defends the knight with 6.Be3 and black plays Nf6 white goes 7.f3 black puts there king to safety with O-O white goes 8.Qd2 d5 striking in the center, white exchanges with 9.exd5 Nxd5 and white most commonly follows up with 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 white plays 11.Nxc6 Qxc6 and here white is falling apart, black has a 63% advantage to whites 31%.

Furthermore here blacks dark squared bishop is super helpful and targeting the b pawn blacks queen is active and they can develop there light squared bishop to f5...its all very good for black.

3. The Dragon Variation

After 2.Nf3 instead of Nc6 black also may go d6,this is known as the Dragon Variation.

White goes 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 and black follows up with Nf6 attacking the e pawn white defends with 5.Nc3 and black responds with g6, with similar ideas as the Accelerated Dragon, white goes 6.Be3 and black continues with Bg7 white plays 7.f3 and black most often responds with O-O white plays 8.Qd2 and black responds with Nc6 white protects there king with 9.O-O-O, because of the opposite side castling it often leads to attacks by both black and white on there opponents castled king which leads to dynamic positions.

4. The Najdorf Variation

After 5.Nc3, instead of g6 black most often plays a6, The Najdorf Variation, one of the most common variations of the Sicilian Defense that was popularized first by former world champ Bobby Fischer, and afterwards by former world champ Garry Kasparov. And one of the reasons they, and many other GM’s play it is because its so flexible.

Like say white goes 6.Bc4, then black can at any time play b5 and then go even more forward with b4, and this is always bad for white.

Or if white instead goes 6.Be2 black can strike in the center with e5.

Here white most often plays 6.Bg5, black follows up with e6 white plays 6.f4 Be7 7.Qf3 is most played,black goes Qc7 9.O-O-O Nbd7 10.g4 and generally here white has an advantage of 51% to blacks 44%.

One problem with the Najdorf however for lower rated players is that its a rather complex variation, good for Masters but not very good for lower rated players.

5. The French Variation

And finally the least popular of the 3 most popular moves for black after 2.Nf3 (Nc6 most popular and d6 second) is 2...e3, the French Variation, which albeit is still extremely popular for black with over 57 million games in the Lichess database.

As always white plays 3.d4 followed by cxd4 and 4.Nxd4, after this the most common move is a6, the Kan Variation, here white plays 5.Nc3 and here black plays an incredibly strange looking move Qc7? Why this move you may ask? Well its because it adds pressure against the knight in the future when we play Bb4, furthermore the setup that works usually against the Sicilian with castling queen side doesn’t work against Qc7.

For example white goes 6.Be3 Nf6 and if they try to do the normal setup with 7.Qd2 then black goes Bb4 whites pawn is hanging now so 8.f3 d5 and here is 9.exd5 then Nxd5 and blacks position is very good, but if 9.Bd3 then e5 10.Nf5 Bxf5 white plays 11.exf5 d4 and black wins.

So white shouldn’t go for this setup, instead they should play 7.Bd3, black goes Bb4 white plays 8.O-O Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qxc3 white then goes 10.Rb1 Qc7 and in general black has a good advantage of 52% to whites 45%.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, I am planning on making a part two with even more variations very soon so if you want to see it make sure to follow me @NoahdeAlwis .

Have a Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2025 will bring you many brilliant moves in chess.