Alapin Sicilian | INSTRUCTIVE Open Centre Attack! ⚡ Quick Wins #68
#sicilian #alapin #quickwins #opencentrefiles #tactics
Today's game is from one of my subscribers @the_nut_job, which was a low accuracy game, but had a very nice checkmate on move 12. It is also a good demonstration of some quick win tactics and principles!
My subscriber had the Black pieces and they have recently been playing the Sicilian. The game goes down the Alapin Sicilian line (1. e4 c5 2. c3) and on move three, White plays an inaccuracy with (3. Qc2).
Idea 1: don't bring out your queen early in the opening unless it is part of an established line of theory.
The game then goes for a few turns with both White and Black piling pressure in the centre, but White makes a serious mistake with (6. cxd4), but Black misses the tactic. Black had a killer move (6… Qa5+), an absolute fork of White's king and undefended light square bishop.
Idea 2: look for checks and watch those diagonals to your king! An exception to idea 1 is when there is an opportunity to attack with the queen in response to the opponent's error.
After (7. exd5), the e-file was fully opened, and things become very dangerous for both sides. With risk comes opportunity and there are often quick win opportunities in the early game with attacks down open centre files!
Who will take the advantage - White or Black? Unfortunately, White continued to indulge in adventurism by capturing unimportant material deep in Black's territory (10. Qxb7). This was a mistake. The queen was practically White's only developed piece and on b7, it was almost trapped, and certainly unable to provide defence of her king, which was exposed in the centre with open centre files. Black, on the other hand, had multiple pieces developed.
Idea 3: a queen can rarely deliver a fatal quick win attack on her own without support.
On move 11, White blunders checkmate with (11. dxe7) as (11. Nc2#) is a beautiful geometric checkmate. Black, however, misses it! However, they do find it on move 12 - a fantastic combination of the bishop, a knight advance, with a discovered fully open d-file controlled by the queen. A fantastic example of a quick win through a tactical use of early open centre files! GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/599179141
