How NOT to play the "Anti-Sicilian with no name"

How NOT to play the "Anti-Sicilian with no name"

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I don't want to step into the controversial argument of whether or not "blitz chess kills your ideas" (Fischer), but at least from my experience, blitz chess and classical chess are different and I feel as if I need to shift gears before attempting the  transition from playing blitz to classical and vice versa. So in the following game, you can say I was in a blitz mode towards the beginning (I was literally pre-moving in the opening) and started to concentrate when things got bad. Regardless, I feel that classical games will improve your game because despite the fact that I feel that I know the opening (hence the pre-moving) it is always good to look back at your games to see if you really understand the opening or if there is a way to improve it. In other words, learn to play creatively.

The following opening is a repetoire that I got from a chess.com article called "The Anit-Sicilian with no name" by GM Bryan Smith:"  http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-anti-sicilian-without-a-name.

I think this opening is a pretty nice repetoire for those who do not like to play into the mainline Sicilian and want to surprise your opponents using an anti-Sicilian other than the typical Alapin, Smith Morra, etc. From the way I play it, it usually gets into (what I consider) a better version of the Grand Prix attack. 

But this blog isnt meant to teach you how to play this "Anti-Sicilian with no name" (ASNN), but rather how not to play it. So let's begin!



So here is the opening position for ASNN. Typically, white plays 3.f4 and enters into the Grand Prix attack, but the purpose of 3. Bb5 is an attempt to trade the light square bishop for the Knight on c6. The reason is to eliminate a defender of the e5 square and avoid some counter play with moves like Nd4 in certain variations of the Grand Prix. The other idea is to double up black's pawns. (Note: black can play 4. Nd4 in response which gets into another interesting position that is not covered in this blog)

 


So here I honestly cannot be confident in what the best plan for white is. After spending about 3 minutes on the clock I decided to just go for it and attack on the king-side. 

So there you have it. A game I should have probably lost. I think the reprecussions to blitz chess are a little more serious than I had anticipated but I think in order for me to improve I should learn to play creatively or play according to the position as opposed to the plan.