Picking up the Scicilian after 20 years

Short version: I want to learn the Scicilian without plummeting my rating.

20 years ago, when I started playing chess in earnest, the Scicilian and Ruy Lopez did not appeal to me either as white or black so I got into the Queen's Gambit, Indian Defenses, and the Pirc to avoud open games.

Now I have gotten back into chess and regret limiting myself so much and want to start looking at the Scicilian for starters.  Can folks suggest a gentle way I can jump into all the theory out there?  I am quite comfortable with the Pirc, so any Scicilian variation with g6 is likely to go easier for me.

Please no one lecture me on not needing to learn openings unless you are a master.  Not to be overly aggressive, but thats crap, openings having internal logic and pitfalls that are worth learning.

Thanks,

Dan

I don't claim to be the best at any of these book openings, but I've played the sicilian for a long time (not reflected by my rating, I hang my queen in 80% of my games it seems).

I feel the way I learned it wasn't very theory-heavy at first, and the theory that I ended up learning I picked up from ingame play. So the basics are that the mainline sicilian starts 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3. At this point there are a few options for black and I would say start out with the dragon 5... g6 in preparation to fianchetto your bishop and castle kingside. Then just play. Focus on your opponent's queenside and controlling, but not occupying the center.

Once you play that a bunch you'll find that it has some big strengths and weaknesses.To exploit its weaknesses though, your opponent has to know quite a bit of theory. Once you want to delve into theory try 5... a6 instead of 5... g6.

Amen brother

hmm Perhaps you could learn first the Dragon, Accelerated-Dragon, Hyper-Accelerated-Dragon ?

Lot's of examples, theory & videos are readily available on this because it's popular:

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B70_Sicilian_Defense_Dragon_Variation

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B34_Sicilian_Defense_Accelerated_Dragon_Modern_Variation

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B76_Sicilian_Defense_Dragon_Variation_Yugoslav_Attack_Modern_Line

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B38_Sicilian_Defense_Accelerated_Dragon_Maroczy_Bind

Apart from anything else, the Sicilian is a fun system to play.  I laboured for years to find a decent defence against e4.  With 1)...c5 you throw a gauntlet down and get interesting lively positions.  When I started playing Sicilian about 15 years ago I never looked back.  I don't know a lot of the theory but once you understand the basic ideas it is quite an intuitive opening.  Sure, there's a lot written about it but just understand in what variation you play what squares you are aiming for, which pawn advances work in which lines and which sacrifices to watch for.  (The book "sacrifices in the sicilian" by Levy is entertaining and instructive.)  If you want to learn the Najdorf learn the theory - move order can be a real killer as some slight deviations allow horrendous sacs at e6, b5, d5, f5.  I play the dragon in casual games, where I rely more on the general positions I have seen and some basic principles.  In serious games I tend to play the classical Nc6 and d6.  Each variation is instructive but most of all the square d5 is the most important in just about every sicilian game.  Another thing to consider if you do take it up is that so many people hate playing against it that they adopt systems like Bb5, c3, Nc3, f4.  It is worth more to play through a bunch of sicilian open games to get the feel of how you want it to go and then bone up on all the little variations that White can go into - these mostly I find are the trouble areas as they take you out of your comfort zone.  I thought years ago "I'll not bother with the wing gambit (b4) beyond a few moves..." famous last words.

Thanks Sandaga, I will look into the Dragon (at the very least it has a great name ).  What might I run into on the way as far as mainline deviations? Anything major?

#theunsjb: /internetfistbump

Thanks everyone else too, two people crossposted so I will just stop thanking folks :)

I used to play the caro-kann against e4. For over 15 years, in fact. I since switched to the sicilian, and am very glad I did.  Make that switch!

Try playing the hyper accelerated dragon variation of the sicilian.  It does pretty well for me.  There is also a video series on youtube by a guy who calls himself weaksquare.  I learned the opening from his videos.  He does a good job explaining the tactics and theory.  Here are the first two moves, which is the hyper accelerated dragon.

don't learn both the normal and hyper versions, stick to one or the other, if you play the normal one there already is a lot of material to learn and the accelerated lines add too much to go over

It is interesting to look at it as a long time Pirc player and see some similarities between the two before checking out that web series.

Good luck!! :)

I have a blog about the dragon.  It is tactically sharp and fun to play and it uses g6.  I cover 4 of the most popular modern lines played now, with explanations and ways to help it transpose more often into studied lines..  If you want classical or accelerated or hyper accelerated though I do not cover those lines as of yet.  The diagrams should be easy enough to follow and understand.  Just make sure to check out the first one for the main ideas before you dig into the other 3.

I will check it out Derek... at the very least I am fairly sure we like the same music :)

Someone else gets it too.  Most people think I am some proud pothead that loves chess.

Since I am a total Scicilian newbie, I get to ask stupid questions :)

After 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 what is blacks respond to 4. dc? Qa4+?

no you take the d pawn with the c pawn

you don't play nf6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence,_Dragon_Variation

I actually included those lines in my blog since they occasionally occur from trying to make it transpose into a dragon instead of a Maroczy Bind.  Black ends up fine.  If dxc then Nxe4.  And if you want to play a dragon, you certainly want to throw that move in first. Instead of the normal cxd.