A Bust to the Sicilian Defense

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1582858

Wjat to play after d6?

d4

Black was a stronger player here, given that he was the wc challenger.

And, of course, 11...d5 was chosen.

In my opinion the Sicilian Defense is busted. It loses by force.

The opening move of the Sicilian Defense violates just about every opening principle. It fails to develop a piece, fails to put a pawn in the center, and fails to open up a bishop for development. It allows white to immediately open up the center and to do so with greater development. The Sicilian Defense has nevertheless remained popular despite all of this for one reason and one reason only; in order for white to open up the center it comes at the cost of having to trade its D pawn for black's C pawn. This is why the ideal response to the Sicilian is the Alapin Variation 2. C3! It says to black no you can't have my center pawn. Now white is ahead in both development and control of the center , and black has absolutely no compensation.

You don't believe me? Look at the game explorer then. I have played 581  games here on chess.com using the Alapin. I have won 68% lost 26% and drawn the other 6%. That is a score of 71%. No other opening is capable of scoring 71%. But to prove all this let's look at some games. First, we have a 3 minute no increment blitz game I played. Look at the massive advantage white immediately gets both in piece development and in center control. Both are problems which stem from black's first move.

Here's another 3 minute no increment blitz game I played. Notice how easy white's development is and how black's position is already completely unplayable by move 10.

Finally, I'm sure you want to see a master level game so here we have Deep Blue vs. Kasparov (1996). For a little historical context this was the first match between them and Kasparov annihilated Deep Blue +3 -1=2. Deep Blue's lone victory came as you might guess playing the Alapin Variation. Kasparov faced a horrible position straight out of the opening and Deep Blue wasted no time converting it. Notice that the most powerful chess player of all time got destroyed playing against a computer much weaker than him.

After 2. C3 black is in my opinion lost. White refuses to allow black to exchange its c pawn for white's d pawn giving black no compensation for white's lead in development and center control, which ultimately always proves decisive in the end. 

I'd like to close by saying that of course black can always play differently than in the games shown, in which case he merely loses differently.

An equalization for the Alapin:

In your sideline, play Bxd4 instead of Cxd4, giving White play against the IQP.

Terrible White play!

You should listen to staples, he played this game

Terrible White play!

hes rated 2300

In your sideline, play Bxd4 instead of Cxd4, giving White play against the IQP.