I WANT TO DEMOLISH THE SICILIAN OPENING AS WHITE! GIVE SUGGESTIONS!

I open a mysterious golden lamp, and a genie comes out.

"You have three wishes," it says.

"I wish to demolish the sicilian defense as white!" I chirp enthusiastically.

The genie thinks for a bit, brows furrowed. Then-

"You still have three wishes."

Man I wonder why we tout these games from 2011. I wonder why they were famous. Maybe because the smith morra isn't a very reliable opening?

Oh noooo... a win over gukesh! Oh wait... it was in 2017. How old was gukesh then? Oh yeah. Eleven.

Yet it's still a good enough opening for Esserman to demolish 2800+ rateds on lichess.

Hikaru also plays it in rapid on this site, which suggests it's a reasonable choice for us mere mortals.

Weird, huh?

Magnus crushed Kramnik with a6, that doesn't make it good. You can take literally any line in chess and cherry pick instances where someone is crushing someone else with it, it is meaningless. You can also choose almost any line and if you study it deeply you will do well with it for a while. But you are not Esserman (who is only an IM). What you're ignoring are the many more times people are getting crushed in the same line, which we can simply see in the stats... no speculation needed. Looking at your games I don't see any where you've played the sicilian as black, either. Which means you have a very poor understanding of the opening. Numerous black players are telling you how easy it is for them to respond to the SM, and yet you continue to... ignore them and advertise it. Like you're running TV ads for it. I've noticed SM players tend to do this alot. Mystery as to why. If you were smart, you'd realize that the black sicilian players know something you don't.

The probably most annoying Sicilian to defend as black is the alapin, but if youre looking for fun gambit-style aggression im a fan of the mengarini (or a3) Sicilian. Lots of cool lines but the classic is as follows:

and I assume you are a strong enough player to realise why black is in a spot of bother…

I play an offbeat opening against the Sicilian I call the Adkins Attack, it goes like this:

Very tricky for Black if they don't play correctly. I even beat a CM with it in 18 moves with a common trap in this opening:

My blog covering the mainlines of this opening plus the traps:

The Adkins Attack: An Interesting Take on Dismantling the Sicilian Defense

Also I agree, honestly if I played the regular Smith Morra mainline I would lose more often. The main reason I'm winning with my Adkins Attack is because I take black off guard and throw them off early.

With correct play, with the Adkins Attack, I get faced with this, which is around an even game with a slight advantage for black:

Ok, quick question.

Why on Earth would I play main line Sicilians when the SMG gives me some of my best over all results?

If I were to ask you to ditch openings that you use that give you the best win/lose ratio, you'd probably quite rightly tell me to do one!

Pretty much 60% win ration when accepted:

Almost 60% wins whether the gambit is accepted or not:

I agree in as much as the stats speak for themselves.

I've shown that with a bit of theory (in comparison with the open/closed Siclians!) that the SMG is perfectly playable at the intermediate level (1400-1600).

Marc Esserman's research and results on Lichess show that the SMG is an excellent option on that site to beat 2300-2800 rateds.

A few Super GMs wheel out the opening as a surprise (usually in blitz OTB or online rapid/blitz) and they also get decent results.

A lot of older lines that feature prominently in the databases have long been surpassed by the research of Langrock & Esserman, so returns are misleading.

GMs have read Esserman's book and agree that is has rejuvinated the Morra as a decent weapon against the Siclian Defence.

GM Larry Christiansen (Three-time U.S. Champion) wrote the foreword for Mayhem in the Morra!. He notes that while preparing for the 2011 U.S. Championship, he used Esserman’s analysis and novelties from the book, concluding that the gambit was not just dangerous but “perfectly sound.” Christiansen calls Esserman “no greater authority in the world on this line.”

GM Loek van Wely — former top-10 world player — also contributed a foreword. He remarked (as quoted by Quality Chess) that when they played a Morra game, his initial skepticism turned into respect after being “crushed in an impressive way,” forcing him to take the Morra seriously for the first time. 

I asked a few GMs about the Sicilian and they pretty much recommended learning Rossolimo. They were all chess coaches (including some having Chessable courses) as well so there maybe something to this.

as a sicilian player, let me ask you, why do masters love the sicilian? because you cant demolish it

And the Bongcloud is good enough for Carlsen and Naka to demolish everyone at fast chess.

The Smith Morra hate is crazy. I will agree it's not the best, but in low time controls and playing at a 1500-2000 range, it's certainly fun!

... and intermediates can win around 60% of their games when using it!

I know! At master level it ain't great but everywhere it's completely viable

Zack D Films : Throw a german sticky grenade.

By your own rationale, 1.d4 & 1.e4 are dubious.

Learning how to play the sicilian in a serious way is better in the long run. When you're 1500 the goal isn't generally to get wins immediately, it's to improve as a player. But if you want quick wins it's fine, just quit annoyingly advertising your line as if it is something profound and magical, when in reality it is just something that doesn't require much understanding for you to play. You are just promoting and celebrating your ignorance. The SM is meant to be played in shame, knowing you could have aspired to better. It really is just a cheesy line that black has multiple simple, reliable ways of responding to. The slower the time format and the higher the rating, the better black is performing.
And it isn't a surprising line, either. That's the other thing I hear, that you are "throwing off" the opponent. It is actually the opposite.

Btw, Nakamura plays everything. So does Magnus. Go look at their game stats. It looks like an opening explorer.

That should have been the end of the thread as it is the complete refutation of your suggestion.

Lock it NOW!