The Sicilian as played by Non-Masters

DISCLAIMER : What follows is just my opinion, which I have developed after playing and teaching chess over the last several years. The Sicilian Defense is a very good opening, and a strong candidate for the best reply to 1.e4. What you decide to do with your games is your decision to make and not mine. Please post games of your own against or with the Sicilian! This post is for annotated Sicilian games played by non-masters.

I have made a lot of claims about the Sicilian in general not being an appropriate opening for non-masters, because White gets a big advantage in development and Black has to know the exact right ways to get counterplay or can quickly get crushed. I believe that at non-master level, White has a much larger advantage against the Sicilian than against other major openings.

I will back that statement up by posting all of my tournament games against the Sicilian when playing non-masters.

For starters, here is my Sicilian game from a tournament today:

While your claim may be right I dont think the poor opening play in either of those games backs it up. They could just as easily play bad moves in 1..e5 and I could claim that 1..e5 is a bad move for non masters.

I think some sicilian such as the Kan and Sveshnikov are suitable for non masters.

Black didn't really misplay the opening in #1, I'm referring to the way White gets a big advantage in development when compared to other major openings.

Perhaps at non-master levels, white knows the sicilian just as much as black, and it is therefore on even terms with both players.

An easy way to take advantage of 6.Bg5 e5? in the Najdorf.

Back in the 1970's and 80's... when I was in my teens and twenties... I used to play the Sicilian with both colors; I was just as happy to play the Black side of a Sicilian as the White side.

These games were played when my rating (and the ratings of my typical opponents) were between 1750 and 1950. I lost a few games, of course, but had a strong plus-score with both sides of the Sicilian Defense. I even drew a clock simul game against Tal in '88, playing the Black side of a Sicilian Najdorf against Tal's 1. e4. I wish I still had a copy of that score-sheet.

I do have scores to several of the other tournament and off-hand games, if you had any interest in seeing some of them, Expertise87.

uhohspaghettio - it's fine if people give up the Sicilian because they trust what I write...I don't mind at all.

blueemu - feel free to post games! That's what this thread is all about.

I'll post a game I lost next, but here's another win:

Here's a loss where I missed a few strong moves in the opening, and played a relatively dubious line to begin with.

Two games with the Keres Attack:

uhohspaghettio - I put a disclaimer at the beginning of my first post, hope it makes you happy.

Here's a crazy game with Black against the Open Sicilian:

I've got a few others, too, if you're interested... including a very tense back-and-forth game in the Closed Sicilian.

"I have made a lot of claims about the Sicilian in general not being an appropriate opening for non-masters, because White gets a big advantage in development and Black has to know the exact right ways to get counterplay or can quickly get crushed. I believe that at non-master level, White has a much larger advantage against the Sicilian than against other major openings."

I find this a dubious assertion.  After all, if White is also a non-master he has to find the combinative ideas to beat Black's game...and I believe that's quite a bit more difficult than to simply plod along (which is playing into Black's hands in that opening).

AndyClifton, the basic premise of my argument is that White gets a large advantage in development against the Sicilian, or a large space advantage. These advantages can actually be utilized by non-masters.

Black's trumps are generally concrete, and require understanding very specific plans in order to generate sufficient counterplay. I don't understand the Sicilian nearly well enough to ever want to risk playing it from the black side.

Lines where White simply develops and pressures Black lead to positions that are very easy for Black to lose, while White's positions are not usually easy to lose unless you go for opposite side castling English Attack-type positions where Black gets an attack too.

I don't like to play lines where Black gets a strong attack, so I play lines where all of my pieces are out and then I look for attacking ideas. So far I haven't lost an Open Sicilian against a non-master, ever.

And I find all of that quite debatable.  However, I have never been one myself to feel very comfortable with the Sicilian (although the English has long been my favorite opening). 

I have found that the easiest way to play is to simply go into old and even but not drawish (not that it matters) lines that require both sides to at least have an idea of what's going on. Anyway my last games went ok.

Nice game!

AndyClifton, do you have any Sicilian games to post?

Probably not.  As I suggested earlier, it's been a long time since I've tread those waters.

Expertise  What do you think of this lines for White?

1. e4  c5   2. Nf3  d6  3. Bb5+

That's one I like!  When I've played against the Sicilian recently.