How far can you get with your planned opening if your opponant doesn't play it?

look, learning openings in any depth is rather pointless to anyone below, say, 1900 rating (approx). Yes you might want to learn the first few moves of some favourite systems.

But, your time is much better spend studying the basic opening principles of open/closed/semi-open/ hypermodern etc.

Once you have good solid principles, you can apply to any opening. Exactly as a grandmaster does when faced with an opening novelty (new move in a known position or a less familiar opening). Just like kasparov did to Anand in their wc match (1995) - Anand responded to kasparov's 1.e4 with 1....d5. Kasprov had never played against this, but he just analysed and played logical moves based on sound opening principles. He won the game, and match, despite of Anand's much better prpearation and study of this opening.

I like the way  the bishop moves  here like in the Ruy Lopez. And now we are ready to castle. Or go after black's kingside.

What do you mean it is backed up by an aggressive pawn structure.

I will look this opening up.

Thank you.

stwils

the only way to learn something is to play it

Good point spoiler.

OG

Does nobody read my advice?

Dont worry, I did. I was going to post something similar myself, but I couldnt be bothered to make another list of opening principles, nor look for a ready-made one.

The Sicilian Defense is the most popular opening in chess. 1. e4 is answered by c5 much more than by e5. Why? Because Black doesn't want to have to know a zillion complicated lines of the Ruy Lopez and the Guico Piano, and he fears the King's Gambit, to boot. So if you are going to play 1. e5, you need to have at least one strategy in your quiver against the Sicilian. Choose a line that from the start will keep your opponent away from all his pet Dragon, Najdorf, Sveshnikov, or dozens of other variations. For this purpose I often choose the Closed Sicilian when playing against higher-level players; this takes them off their turf and puts them on mine.

Marvellous Nytik - a fellow briton

If I were you I'd look through a few games where Black played the Sicilian to see what some common ideas are.  Then, I'd try some of my own experimentation to see if I could find some new ideas of my own (come to think of it, that's exactly what I did when I was learning to play against the Sicilian).  Actually, I sometimes hope that my opponents will play the Sicilian because it makes for an interesting game!  Oddly enough, I also enjoy playing the Sicilian and use it almost exclusively against the king's pawn opening (although I am considering going back to the King's Pawn Game), making me one of those rare players whose favorite defense to play as Black is also his favorite defense to play against when playing as White.

The Sicilian is very interesting, and Sicilian games are fun to play whether you have White or Black:)  Just familiarize yourself with the idea behind the opening.  The main idea of someone who plays the Sicilian as Black is to trade his c-pawn for your d-pawn (trading a flank pawn for a central pawn), and the idea of someone who plays the traditional 2. Nf3 against the Sicilian is to allow Black to make this trade and count on the resulting centralized Knight for compensation.

The Sicilian is NOT the most popular chess opening, Ricardo -Morro.

I would have thought that e4 e5 was much more popular. Millions and millions and millions of games open like this.

At master level, maybe the sicilian is black's most popular reply to e4. but even many master/GMs do not use it.

Fools.

This is decidedly not true...or at least at the level I play people aren't so lazy as to play a scicilian ¨because they don't want to learn a zillion variations¨ The scicilian is even more complicated than the Ruy besides... and to play it correctly takes years of practice, I would say they Ruy is still popular and the scicilian is as popular as the french-not everyone likes open games.

Well, the only thing I know to do is to learn the Sicilian myself - then I will hopefully understand what black is doing, and then as white I can manage to deal with it.

I play black a lot of the time here on chess.com. But I always (maybe timidly) answer with e5 to white's e4.

Come to think of it, I don't think when I have played black, white never opened with d4. (Much to my relief.)

So much to learn!

stwils

 well you don't know how to play chess ?!? really you don't have to know opening to play it quite correctly, and if you can't it means you must work on your tactics, strategy vison and so on.. knowledge of the openings is at the last position on your 'to learn' list really.

Eye of the Dragon,

I believe you. I think I am getting ahead of myself. Thanks.

stwils

stwils:

That’s not I problem. I only posted all that as a very basic guide to playing the openings. It’s a simple example of how to get a grasp on the general way different lines should be played. Rudimentary knowledge of opening strategy is all you need right now. Be aware though that at the rating you are right now most of your opponents are not going to be playing according to any opening strategy anyway; their moves will likely be pretty aimless. Therefore the way to beat them is to improve your all around play. If you spend time on strategy, tactics and basic K&P and R&P endings and play over some well annotated master games that will do more to increase your winning chances than studying any opening in detail. Case in point…I recently lost a CC game to a 2500 rated player and there was nothing wrong with my opening. He just knows more about chess than I do so no opening in the world would have helped me.

stwils,

in a previous forum "When is it time to learn the Sicilian", I gave what I thought was a concise answer to your question. I found your remark, in reply, a little dismissive, however, I shall expand here. What you must do (to start, anyway) is form some "catch all" plan against the Sicilian. I would advise against playing "Open" lines against the Sicilian i.e. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 (or Nc6) 3 d4 as your lack of knowledge may be found out in sharp lines like the Dragon and Najdorf variations. The Closed Sicilian is a safer bet and ensures that you make it to a middle game without too much damage (1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 ....). The plan for White is basically to form the following set up e4, Nc3, g3, Bg2, Nge2, 0-0, d3   the exact move order is interchageable and will depend on what your opponent plays. From this basic set-up White can try a King-side assualt revolving around the thematic push f4 (supported by the knight on e2 and the rook on f1). Try it out in some blitz games and play through some master games to gain a better understanding and a feel for the position.

Regards Ray.

gm tiviakov is using c3sicilian to get ruylopezlike positions. he is doing quite well even against gmopponents:) i myself have tried alot of antisicilians and i feel my opponents is getting effortless equality in all of them. after finally deciding on trying out some "real" sicilians with 3.d5! i can get good positions even when forgetting alot of the theori. i just regret i havent started with d5 earlier. d5 is now my main reason for playing chess. so many attackingchances:)

Ray, I never meant my remarks in the past to be dismissive of you. And I am sorry I sounded that way.

I am writing down your plan for me. I have to write it down because at this point all this opening information is more than I can digest.

Thanks for writing me.

stwils

Check this out:

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/10openrules.html

Learn those opening principles and study lots of tactics and you'll be fine...

I just went to your link. Looks promising and encouraging for me.

Thanks  you so much.

stwils