What's the problem with 2. c4 against the Sicilian?
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It transposes to a botvinnik english if white plays d3, or a maroczy sicilian if white plays d4. The problem is that black hasn't committed any of his forces yet so he ends up with variations of these openings more favorable for black than in traditional move orders.
I would say that the problem is that it creates a knight outpost on the d4 square, since the pawn cannot kick it out. There probably are more reasons and theory behind why this move is bad, but this is the one that I think of off of my head.
Usually white only opts for a botvinnik english if black plays e5. That way there are mutual weaknesses on d4 and d5.
May 17, 2008
0
#5
Yeah, the only problem with this move is the hole it creates on d4 but many times this will transpose into a Maroczy Bind Sicilian or some type of English opening so it is very playable.
May 17, 2008
0
#6
I agree. You should look passed the first couple of moves and then begin your database search. You can reach the desired opening through transposition.
If the pawns were on d4, e3 and f4, then it would be a stonewall. Here it is a stonewall but the attention is shifted to the queenside, where is usually black's attacking side. This means that the two sides will attack aimlessly, to a certain degree. White needs to organise his forces to attack the black king but that is hard to do with all the pawns on the queenside and the d3 pawn being a little blockading,while black naturally attacks on the queenside in some lines. Should white attack the queenside instead, he is aiming at nothing, and therefore will always succeed.
Sometimes, when I was playing black in the Sicilian, people have played 2. c4 against me:
This move generally leads to a closed game where white lacks initiative and plays in the defensive so I used to consider it a bad move. But yesterday I have experienced it playing against a computer chess program which I've never beaten before, the Rival Chess and suprisingly I've won two games in a roll!
I was so excited I decided to make some research about that move in the Internet and for my disappointment I discovered 1. e4 c5 2. c4 is not even listed between the main variations either of the Sicilian or the English. In addition, according to the Opening Explorer of chessgames.com this opening leads black to win 47.7% of the times, against 24.6% for white.
What's the problem with this move?