Is sicilian defence playable for beginners?

Adorable  if you are rated around 1400 then you are not a beginner.

My comment assumed you were a beginner.

I wonder how you would perform in the Dragon against a stronger player. It requires quite an accurate knowledge of forced lines as well as awareness of white's typical attacking motives.

If you memorize a number of lines you can beat equal opponents easily but this does not mean you are learning chess effectively - do you understand why black sacs Rxc3 or Nxg4? Or when Bxe5 is better than Bxg4 after e5 Nxg4? Or you just blindly follow Gufeld's (or another author's) book?

I spent at least half a year studying Gufeld before actually playing the Dragon in a tournament game. I wanted to understand the motives and be able to find a good answer to a move which is not covered in the book.

What is more important - by playing the Sicilian you do not expose yourself to a direct open attack like Scotch, Evans or king's gambits.

You may get better results with the Sicilian but you are actually avoiding to improve your chess when not facing open games. The art of defense is a very important skill which can benefit in any game.

By playing the Dragon you will learn how to counter-attack which is also very valuable but sometimes you just have to sit and suffer opponent's pressure until it runs out and open games are the best teachers of that.

Well dont u have to sac on c3 in the dragon and dont u have to Play extremly precise? Not to talk about the mentioned kingside attack. To me it seems even with advantage you can easily lose.

But maybe im wrong that were just my first impressions

Yet I have been playing the Sicilian (and the Sicilian Dragon when white goes into an open Sicilian) since I was an 800 rated player last January, and it has not held back my progress whatsoever, if anything it's helped it. All those crazy, sharp Yugoslav attack games have given me a better ability to stay calm and handle not just Dragon/Yugoslav positions but ANY kind of sharp position.

Have you ever faced the properly executed Yugoslav attack? I do not think 1400 players are able to perform it correctly. I guess a 1400 player is more likely to play a good Dragon game with black who has much counter-attacking resources against too straightforward attack

Here's me playing the dragon against someone 300 points higher than me 5 days ago at Lichess. http://en.lichess.org/analyse/eynygsc0/black

And I have barely memorized any theory on it and I don't even have a single Dragon book, and yes I understand the reasons behind the very basic dragon concepts like the rook sac on c3, even when I was 1000 I understood that. I find your comment rather condescending, you're talking to me like I'm an idiot.

My point is this, I have played the Sicilian since I started 9 months ago yet I still improved a ton, so there's nothing wrong with playing it as a newbie if you want to. It's a matter of taste, don't let these people who don't play it scare you away from it. It takes a bit to learn yes, but you will gradually learn it, and you will be making an investment in a good opening with lots of variety that you can use for your entire chess career.

I do not consider you an idiot, just wanted to underline some concepts of the Dragon which can be hard to understand by a beginner (you may be more talented if you learned that). In open games, there is fight for the centre, attack on f7 or on the castled king - much more straightforward stuff which everyone easily gets

I thought the Sicilian Dragon was considered an "open game" since it is classified as an "open Sicilian" after all. And the Sicilian often leads to open games in other ways depending on white's second move. i.e. 2. bc4 which seems to be so popular even up into the 2000s here on chess.com.

You say you spent a year reading "Gufeld's book" before you even made an attempt to play the Dragon. I did it the opposite way. When I was an 800 player 9 months ago, I needed to find an opening, and I thought well "The Sicilian Dragon" sounds like a cool name I'll play that" so without knowing anything about it, without reading a single book on it, I preceeded to play hundreds of games with it, and over time I got better at it, and as you can see today I'm beating higher rated players with it. It's condecending how you implied that I didn't understand those basic concepts like the rook sac, what's not to understand? You destroy white's queenside pawn structure and give yourself counterplay against their king. That's one of the very basic, first things a newbie playing the dragon learns to understand. Don't say that I just read a book and copy moves, that's what you do with your "Gufeld book" (whoever that is) I learned the Dragon first and foremost by playing it from the very start of my chess playing, and not even a year later I have well over 500 games with it from the black side.

I haven't touched the dragon in awhile and even I know the rook sac on c3 is mainly for the fight over the central light squares, especially d5 can be useful.  Then there's the thematic d5 break, etc. 

Against the Yugoslav attack it's primarily done to destroy the pawn structure and provide counterplay against the white king. If white is employing a classical approach and castled kingside, the rook sac on c3 can also be done, then perhaps it's primarily the central light squares as you describe. Often the knight on c3 will be the only defender of the pawn on e4, which can sometimes immediately be taken after the exchange on c3.

Adorable you are the exception to the rule. What you have done will not work for most beginners.  So be happy this worked for you. 

I think it will work for everyone. Everyone, no matter what their level, can benefit from playing such a (potentially) crazy and sharp opening as the Dragon. And if white uses a Classical system against it, well that's good too, you get nice interesting games of chess from the classical systems, where you can practice your positional skills a bit more.

Ultimately I think the rule holds true that studying tactics and the endgame is where most improvement comes from. I don't think playing the Sicilian Dragon or any of the SIcilian variations will cause a massive leap in improvement, but it will certainly not stymie improvement, as some people here have ridiculously intimated. I think when people try to dissuade beginners from playing the SIcilian, they are actually doing them a disservice. The SIcilian is a great opening for any level and one that can used for someone's entire chess career

Adorable   There is nothing wrong with trying a new idea such as beginners can start with the Sicilian. It worked for you.  It might work for others. 

Or, of course, it might not.

Adorable, since you seem to feel the Dragon well - go for it! You should play the openings that are best for you. Yet so many coaches suggest the beginners to try simpler variations first that we can conclude Sicilian not being the best choice for an average beginner.

I am not a coach so I can only express my own feelings and experience. For me, choosing less complicated openings at first worked well. My friends also did not start with the Sicilian - but it is also possible none of us played that well after just 9 months after learning chess as you showed in your game.

As I mentioned before, you may have some kind of raw talent which lets you comprehend difficult chess problems more easily than an average beginner.

if you can get your head around the sicilian then by all means play it but b aware she is a tough mistress to love get her wrong and you will be punished play her well and she will reward you with victories kiss

Aw, thanks. That's quite a compliment coming from such a good player as you. I'm sorry I got so defensive earlier, and I only hope that I one day after much hard work I can reach the 1900s as you have.

I'd like to think I have raw talent, hopefully I do, but maybe it's also because I've spent so much time playing and studying since I started. There were many days where I woke up and played chess all day until I went to sleep (stopping to use the bathroom and eat of course), Also, in the past few months alone, I've logged nearly 200 hours doing tactics problems at chesstempo.

As for that game I linked to, though I won, I don't think it was my best. I don't usually play blitz and I was exhausted, I think this is why I played ng4 a move too late. It was good enough to get the win but had I played it a move earlier it would have been decisive.

Also there's this, at Lichess you get to choose your color and I only played as black for my first few thousand games (Kevin5 is not my first account there), By playing exclusively as black I got more experience with the Sicilian in a shorter amount of time.

As for the e4/e5 openings, now that I'm playing as white I'm playing those kinds of games too, because I am a 1.e4 player and the most common move by black after that is 1...e5.

Adorable, it is good to learn some type of openings before just jumping into a game of chess. I don't think you are super young, like under 12-14. I could be wrong.

However the opening is only one part of the game. I would recommend beginners (especially young children) learn basic stuff 1st, like opening principles, why you should try to control the center, basic end games, and definitely basic mating patterns, before jumping into learning an opening.

Its not to say they can't learn an opening. Its also not the only way to learn, everyone is different, but generally speaking  its the better way for most. That time/history has shown, most of the top teachers, have stated this.

I would also recommend you should become at least familar with the most played openings, and yes that includes the Sicilian, it is a major opening.

I would also go so far as to say, I would recommend learning all the traps in the major openings that you can, and how to avoid them, before playing in OTB tournaments. Studying tactics alot will help you greatly in this area, and will help you understand positions better.

I checked some of your games on this site. It seems you play a lot of 30 minute games, I would recommend longer games, but perhaps you are comfortable with that time. There are many great tools for beginners/intermediate/even advanced players on this site, you should take advantage of them.

Good luck on your future games.

Thanks for the advice CrimsonKnight, though it must be pointed out that I have a slightly higher rating than you with a significantly higher average opponent rating, so I think it is I that should be giving you that advice.

You're right. I'm not super young, I started playing this year at the age of 30. I was scared starting chess as an adult that I wouldn't be able to improve, but I have, and this time next year I think I can be 1700 at least, and probably even higher.

I'm glad I picked the Sicilian Dragon as my opening. Though what improvements I had came mostly from tactics training, playing the Sicilian Dragon didn't hurt, and just like with any opening, the more you play it the better you get at it. I've always played the Sicilian in response to 1.e4  and never deviated from it. I think with an opening if you lose you can't get discouraged and stop playing it, you must continue to play that opening no matter what, and play it for thousands and thousands of games. That's what I've been trying to do anyway.

Lol, touchee, but don't let a number fool you. If you already know all the basic stuff, then you aren't really a beginner are you. Plus an adult usually can grasp things mentally better than most children, and even teens, that just does not know or fully comprehend the meaning of certain things.

For example a 12 year old may have a good reading ability, but compared to most adults, its comparing apples to oranges.

Also I will be the 1st to admit I can learn something from anyone. Regardless what I might think of their expertise. I was also aware of your rating. I did mention I checked over some of your games. If you want to improve, I would recommend learning every single opening trap, and mating pattern you can. Also play longer games. Go over your games with better players, analyze them, to see where you could have played better.

This will help you alot. Perhaps you already know this, but my above post wasn't just for you. Its also to beginners, that are young, kids that will see this topic, and think they can forget everything else, and just start playing the Sicilian opening, and get better in 6-9 months. I would strongly recommend against that type of attitude, especially for beginners that are younger.

Good luck on your future games.

Good luck in your games too CrimsonKnight, all very sound advice as well.

But for those young kids you mentioned who might find this topic somehow, I say to them, if you want to use the Sicilian no matter what level you are, do it! There is nothing wrong with using the Sicilian as a beginner, and in fact, the sharp tactical positions that often arise in it and the wealth of GM Sicilian games you'll have to look over can only contribute to your improvement.

I think people try to dissuade newer players from using the Sicilian because they themselves don't play it, or they started out playing 1...e5 then switched to the Sicilian and found it challenging. Of course they found it challenging, they're used to playing 1...e5. That's another reason it's good to start with the Sicilian as a beginner, because then later you'll never have to make the switch because you'll already be playing it.