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I don't have much time to explain any of my choices, but here they are.
E5, c5 (only sicilian Najdorf, the other Sicilians are incredibly overrated and can be beaten with enough study) and c6. E5 and C6 give much better scores than the other openings and contrary to patzer stereotypes, they are not some dull drawish opening only boring old people play. In both openings, if one player is just better than the other, then they will probably win, even if they are black. Now I know what you're thinking, 'but slowdude22, isn't that the same for all openings?' No. One example is the pelikan sicilian main line, where both players memorise a line and once that line is all finished, it is literally a complete draw (don't worry, the rossolimo or 9. c4 can save you from this nightmarish draw while they also give white very good chances). Even a 100 rating difference probably won't change the outcome, maybe even 200. I don't recommend the sicilian Najdorf for your level, though as quite often you will just be pushing pawns and you won't learn much from doing that. Another thing is that you will need to memorise a lot more lines while also needing to know what to do against things like bc4, d3 and many other side variations.
No need to memorize unless there are forced, important lines.
And what the hell is slowdeath talking about? Is he stupid? Does he even know what the Sicilian is?
As far as I know, none of the well known lines in the sicilian are refuted, and they cant be beaten with study.
Is the Sveshnikov refutable with enough study? I dont think so, White has nothing to show even in ICCF games. In fact, a well known player in the correspondence community (Firebrandx) has many wins with the Sveshnikov.
And what the hell, 9.c4 is both an ilegal move in the Pelikan with Be6 and in the Pelikan/Sveshnikov with b5.
So, long story short, dont listen to slowdeath.
Yep, I thought he would reffer to that too, as far as I know ICCF dudes preffer c3 lines where Black plays something with Rb8 and b4 (I may be confusing lines).
I play the Najdorf OTB and have 3 current games in the Lechenicher server with the Najdorf (Im playing as black) against dudes rated 900, 800 and 1900 (I dont know what to expect in terms of strenght, but I guess I will beat the 900 and 800 rating dudes and hopefully draw or win against the 1900).
However, Im considering switching to the Sveshnikov in correspondence chess. Positions are nice and it isnt easy to crack at all, plus White seems to be having a harder time against it.
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