What's the best response for white in the Sicilian Defense?

I've been experimenting with 2. Qh5 lately. Having moderate success. The Siclian is quite a solid defense for black. I don't think there's a "trump card" against it.

As a Sicilian player with Black, I find the Alapin Sicilian most annoying. I seek to play the Paulsen or Taimanov Sicilian w early e6, so you can't play a Bb5 Sicilian against it. With the Alapin, White is trying to limit your counterplay and just get a lingering small positional advantage. The best defense for Black is played like the Alekhine defense, Nf6 allowing e5, which I really don't like.

With White, you can always play the Alapin if you are patient and don't expect to blast your opponent off the board in 15-20 moves. In the open Sicilians, Black can try a variety of complex structures. You'd get a bigger advantage with white if you know exactly what to do and have great attacking skills, but it takes a lot more know how.

The most comprehensive opening guide to the Alapin was written by Murray Chandler. GM Sveshnikov also played it with success and has written about it.

I breathe a sigh of relief when somebody tries the Grand Prix Attack. The defense is not that complicated. I know how the easy cookbook mating attack with Bc4 works, so I don't just walk into it. To surprise the Black player, you need some very unorthodox weirdness like 2 b3 or 2 Na3 or 2 g3, but that just forces Black to think for himself early and not rely on memory or habit.

I'm afraid I'll never understand the point in playing d4; exchanging a center pawn against a side one, and opening the c file to fit black desire :-o

@ pfren : i was thinking like u until i watch database and notice that no top GM play this way with black and usually tranpose into symmetrical english.

I dont know what is the problem with your variation which seems logical and efficient, but there must be something...

I don't think there is a fault here. This method of play was mentioned some (maybe forty!) years ago by John Watson in his English opening books. Watson was very fond of the Botvinnik setup, but he rightly commented that after an eventual ...e6 by Black, white cannot use the Botvinnik setup because of that possibility, and play Ng1-f3 instead.

Watson thought that Black is better after 7...Nb4 (#53), which is not true, but still- Black has very easy equality.

Me guesses the FM was drunk when authoring the video.

pfren: If you're going to be nasty, I wonder if you were drunk when you wrote your comment.

FM Szuveges was perfectly clear (and sober) that he was offering the average player, who doesn't much time for opening study, "an alternative system which will give you a reasonable position where you can fight it out based on the chess."

Furthermore, Szuveges said straight-out that it wasn't the best line for White and wouldn't be suitable for GM play.

There is no best response, just as there is no best first opening move. I don't buy the whole best-by-test baloney.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/1d4-best-by-test

More than once, I have seen this quote attributed to Bent Larsen. Anyone know the origin?

"Almost everyone plays 3 d4. But isn't that a positional error? I am not joking. I like my centre pawns, and I like a d-pawn better than a c-pawn. Well then, isn't 3 d4 something like a cheap trap? I know it can be combined with purely strategical ideas, but I find it easier to discuss strategy when I have an extra centre pawn!"

"... it sometimes occurs to me that I should play open Sicilians as White! Once or twice I have tried to act on these more unrealistic notions: at one time I spent a number of weeks trying to learn the Botvinnik Variation of the Semi-Slav as White. The first game in which I actually played this was an unmitigated disaster." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)

Resign and take your pillow xO

I agree with Larsen, and often think of this quote. The biggest problems I've had when facing the Sicilian is when white avoids ceding me the central majority. I wonder wether against Nc6/d6 Sicilians the future isn't Bb5...By analogy the Scotch, except for its brief modern resurgence at the top, and other early d4 schemes for white, eventually gave way to the slower Ruy Lopez...

"Two-thirds of this book deals with 'Open Sicilian' positions, in which White plays 2 Nf3 followed by 3 d4. This is by far the most common way for White to meet the Sicilian. White opens more lines for his pieces and attempts to exploit the fact that he will be ahead in development.

Let's take a look at the possible opening moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 ... . White is up in development and can move his pieces more freely. Black, however, has a structural advantage of an extra central pawn, which gives him long-term chances of taking control of the centre. A typical imbalance has arisen. The onus is on White to exploit his lead in development in order to secure an early initiative. If White plays passively or his initiative runs out of steam, then typically it's Black, with the better pawn structure, who enjoys the long-term chances. Thus it's quite rare for a state of 'dull equality' to arise. Often in the Sicilian, if Black 'equalizes', he is already slightly better! This structural advantage is seen in most Open Sicilian lines: for example, the Dragon, the Najdorf, the Scheveningen and the Classical Variations. The major exception to this rule is the Sveshnikov Variation, in which Black accepts pawn weaknesses in return for activity." - GM John Emms (2009) in Starting Out: The Sicilian, 2nd Edition

I like responding with d4 ,the open Sicilian. The position is rich and will improve your dynamism. At first you might get uncomfortable with d4, but as you play a lot, you will improve your handling of open sicilians.

you are going to have to elaborate on what you mean by went wrong... if it is a case of forgetting an idea in your opening you're just going to have to refresh your memory and be patient. if you're not playing the opening in the "spirit" of the position then you should work on your basic chess skills.

Ziggy! Great point. Who knows what the future holds for the open Sicilian or any other system. I've personally seen Magnus Carlsen play some garbage yup openings because he wants to get his opponent "out of book" as soon as possible. The Sicilian is a really good defense to avoid main lines.

"... I will try to predict the future course of developments in the theory of the Sicilian, over the near future. ... The more deeply we study [the position after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4], the more apparent White's advantage will become. The Polugaevsky Variation and the Dragon Variation will die out. The Paulsen and Najdorf Variations will survive longer, but they will face an unenviable fate: it will be hard for them to survive in the face of computer programs and multi-million game databases. ..." - GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (2014)

GM Evgeny Sveshnikov may not want to have a look here. The Sicilian is apparently quite solid in the computer world.

Actually, what is really interesting is that while many think computers are just used to memorize moves and what-not, computers possess an ability which most humans do not have--they play according to the situation. Many humans would be horrified that Rybka nor Houdini ever castled. But that's beside the point--even in the computer era the Sicilian is still going to remain a strong and dominant defense for black due to the fact that a variety of situations can arise. For instance, dxc6 in the accelerated dragon is not that bad of a move as the king is safe on c7 after the queen swap. When humans are playing each other, a human can easily throw another player out of preparation and gain a quick psychological upper-hand that gives him an edge throughout the game. There is no way to refute the Sicilian even in the computer world.

Nf3