A Bust to the Sicilian Defense

This is probably the most well-thought out analytical, and informative thread ive seen here on chess.com

I’ll give everyone a short recap of what we’ve learned so far. 

1.)The Sicilian Defense is busted. It loses by force to 2. c3

2.) Black’s best chance at counterplay is to play 2. d5 or Nf6. With best play Black is still lost even after these moves though. 

3. Black’s best chance to try to play solidly and draw is by trying to transpose into a French Defense. Black can’t quite achieve this, but it’s probably the best try. 

4. All other moves lose pretty much immediately for black due to white’s superior piece development and center control. 

This is pretty funny. Maybe what staples13 is trying to tell us is that many <2000 players on here who play 1...c5 don't know much about how to play against 2. c3, which alone makes it more advantageous than going down whatever line of the sicilian they've studied. That seems right. Some higher rated players might not take it seriously, either. I do like the idea of playing into opponents' 'blind spots' at the club level -- i can't tell you how many <2200 uscf players have gotten completely busted positions against me in the benko. But saying that the benko or the c3 sicilian 'refutes' the opening is to confuse results at the club level with theory. With best play, black is fine in either the 2...d5 or 2...Nf6 lines, and with best play white is fine against the benko. But finding an opening where the opponent has to find 'best play' to be fine, instead of just making natural-seeming moves, is always a nice plus at the club level. 

Here's another game for your enjoyment. I played this one about two minutes ago. It was a 5 minute no increment blitz game. Look at how white's pieces swarm and overrun the black king winning the game in just 15 moves

@staples13

I've already shown in a game that black is equal. No one here is going to take you seriously when engines show that black is equal. If the Sicilian was busted no one would be playing it anymore. 

You showed that when you ask a computer to recommend moves against itself it results in a draw. It proves nothing 

@staples13 That proves that black can equalize. The Sicilian is not busted. You've got to be trolling.

No. White could have played much better than in the game you posted. Thanks for trying though. I appreciate your input 

That's a computer playing lmao. Why don't you play the computer on here (Level 10) and post the game?

Edit: It's funny you say white could have played better. Analyzing the game shows that white played 81.8% of the best move, while black played 84.1% best move. Both sides made 0 mistakes, blunders or inaccuracies.

"In my opinion the Sicilian Defense is busted. It loses by force. ..." - staples (#1, ~13 days ago)

"... Black has 2 main move , 2...d5, ... and 2...Nf6 ..." - UzayAltay (#12, ~13 days ago)

"... I think you should back up your claim with more reasons why 2...d5 or 2...Nf6 might fail for Black. ..." - wiahwib (#32, ~13 days ago)

"... Yes d5 and nf6 do provide much stiffer resistance than any of black's other responses. I, however, believe black is still lost even after these moves. I will post an analysis shortly." - staples13 (#38, ~13 days ago)

"... I’m gonna analyze nf6 ..." - staples13 (#74, ~11 days ago)

"Try your opening against latest Stockfish on your desktop, give SF 1 min per move thinking time. Post your pgn at move 12. Let me know whether black is busted or not!! ..." - drmrboss (#110, ~7 days ago)

"Here's my game with Stockfish. It wasn't able to equalize against my Alapin and its position is probably lost. ... Admittedly I couldn’t figure out how to download stockfish so I had to guess as to what moves stockfish would have played, but I think I probably got it right" - staples13 (#114-5, ~7 days ago)

"Come on. Bust sicilian with Alpin opening. I will use Droidfish on my S7 , with 1 min of analysis. ( I am just 2000 noob compared to 3400+ Stockfish on my phone). Your move now, Stockfish play [1 e4 c5 2 c3] Nf6" - drmrboss (#146, ~5 days ago)

"[3 e5 Nd5 4 d4 cxd4 5 cxd4 Nc6 6 Nf3 d6 7 Bc4 Nb6]" - drmrboss (#181, ~3 days ago)

"Bb3" - stables13 (#182, ~7 hours ago)

"[8...dxe5]" - drmrboss (#191, ~3 hours ago)

Can we take it that you still do not know a winning move #9 for white at this point?

d5

I don't like giving away my secrets, but in the spirit of sharing knowledge here's my beautiful queen trap in the Alapin. This was another 5 minute no increment game I played a couple minutes ago. This is probably the 5th or 6th time an opponent of mine has fallen into this trap.

Foolish materialistic engine.

Nc3

Like the enthusiasm but the Sicilian isn't refuted by the Alapin. I suspect your success is down to the surprise value in that variation, given that the Open Sicilian is far more popular.

Interesting that Carlsen only played the Alapin once against the Sicilian, many years ago, and lost, but Caruana has played it quite a bit and been successful with it. Caruana hasn't played the Alapin against the Sicilian since 2015, however. I only got through the first two of my list of current top 10 players.

Here's another instructive 5 minute no increment blitz game I played a couple minutes ago.

I've found that Na3! is usually the crushing move in these 2.d5 Alapin's. After Na3 white's development is just too quick to be dealt with especially because white's bishops are free to develop while Black has to play e6 to get his bishop out,  and white's dark square bishop develops with a tempo attacking white's queen. Essentially what this Na3 move does is it puts the question of now that the center is wide open how to deal with white's much more rapid piece development, and unfortunately black has no answer.

 Your analysis of this game is completely wrong. Black was equal by move five, Na3 is an alright move but it is not "crushing". By move 13 black could have won a piece with 13...Bxa3. This is all backed up by computer analysis.