A Bust to the Sicilian Defense

staples13 كتب: 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.

2.c3 then Qa5!
Not a super good move, but throws players off
I’ve won some otb games against higher rated players with this move.

How about 3...d5 ?

 

staples13 wrote: … Here's another 3 minute no increment blitz game I played. … 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d6 …

 

"Of course, [2...d6] is not the strongest move, since it allows White to seize the centre." - GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (2010)

"Both 2...Nf6 and 2...d5 are fine against the Alapin, and some players may also like 2...e6 or 2...g6." - IM pfren (September 4, 2018)

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070874

"... Up to [the point of 27. Qc5], the game was basically dead even. 27... d4?! (27... Qg5 28. g3 f4 29. Nd6 Qh5 30. Kg2 fxg3 31. fxg3 Qg6 32. Rc3 d4 33. Rf3 f6 34. Qf5 Qxf5 35. Rxf5 d3 36. Rd5 Ra8

White has the better pawn structure here, but the game is roughly even.) ... [With 32...Re8??,] Kasparov demonstrates that he is human. He was in a slightly worse position due to some minor inaccuracies in the few moves prior, but this is a blunder. (32... Rg5 33. Qxf7 Qxf7 34. Rxf7 Rd5 35. Kf1 Nc1

White is still better, but there is still a lot of work to do here.) 33. Nd6 Of course, even with Deep Blue being significantly weaker than today's engines, it still found these tactics (though, likely did not find the mate in 32 from here) ... 27 moves before he makes an inaccuracy that gives white any sort of advantage - and you think that refutes the opening? ..." - BobbyTalparov (August 29, 2019)

"... I disagree that Kasparov is better until move 27. His knight is put in a brutal pin on move 17 that he can never break without exposing his king and in fact his kingside paw structure does get completely destroyed on move 18. …" - staples13 (August 29, 2018)

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

"... The game was dead even until Kasparov made a mistake on move 27.  He needed to play Qg5 to maintain the balance, and instead played d4, which gave white a strong initiative.  Then he blundered completely on move 32 (which he later admitted was partly due to fatigue and partly due to frustration that he was in a worse position of his own making).  And opening up the g-file is double-edged.  Yes, black loses part of his pawn shield; however, his king will tuck in nicely on h8 and the rook moves over to the g-file staring at white's king.  That is why 27...Qg5 was necessary (it was a mate threat). …" - BobbyTalparov

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=5

How did you find a bobbytalparov quote. I thought all of his comments were deleted when he got banned

I had already copied some of them.

You’ve talked a big game Pfren. Here’s your chance to back it up. Do you accept my challenge?

This is what will happen to you Pfren

I don’t think Pfren is going to accept my challenge.  Do you want to play in his place Kindaspongey?

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=33

Is that a no you don’t want to play? 

LOL, blitz proves nothing about openings, if anything, they become less relevant in fast time controls. To show an opening is busted you should play daily chess on the ICCF where people use anything and everything to make moves, from databases to engines to endgame tablebases, it's the ultimate test for such bold claims.

Is that a no, you have nothing to expect to be accomplished?

Does staples13 claim a specific winning move after 6...d6 ?

This thread has degenerated into the chess equivalent of a 5'1'' man sticking his fingers in his ears and screaming "I am the tallest man on earth!" over and over again. 

Why 3 min?!?! Why not 10???

Disappointing but not surprising. You’ve insulted me every post for the past year, and now that you have a chance to back it up you hide instead of playing me. I can’t blame you for being afraid of my Alapin though. I would be too

Astonishing that this ridiculous thread has so many pages of discussion Obviously there is absolutely no reason to believe, that the Alapin is critical for black. Just judge it by the normal objective criterias: Is it threatening in Correspondence chess? No. Is it dangerous in normal in Classical OTB chess? No.

 

The Alapin is a decent line, cutting the amount of theory, that has to be learned to some degree. But if black knows a few moves, he will be just fine. There are no doubts about that.

Give the OP come credit.  He took an established opening, and turned it into a ridiculous lie, managed to generate almost 1800 posts, an keep this thing going for 14 months.

I think the OP has shown the mindset of these forums.

You’ve spent plenty of time on this thread, so I’m pretty sure you’re not concerned with the loss of a few minutes  from a blitz game. No I think instead you’re afraid of the Alapin, and that’s why you won’t play me. That’s understandable. I do not blame you.