And then there was the Sicilian
So there I was. Going through all the different responses to my opening. No problem. He takes, I take, he moves his bishop, I move my knight. I'm doing fairly well against live opponents too. Suddenly the computer program I was playing against decides to go c5. "Aw man. What is this? I thought the English was a White opening."
So I open the Fine book to the section about the English and read the following: "Then we have a Sicilian Defence with colours reversed...." So I ask the logical question. "What's a Sicilian?", turn to page 66 and am confronted with eight pages of variations and explanations. Suddenly I am reading words like "deliciously complicated" and "exciting variations". Oh great. So I guess I got my work cut out for me. The earliest my next T26 round would be held is Friday so I got a few days but that's if I neglect my problems which would help me for the match. I'll try to balance the time before then and do my best. Other than that I find studying openings to be quite fun. It's the same as memorizing master games, just that they are much shorter and variations play a bigger role.
8 Comments:
Yes, opening study will learn you some interesting names, like the Nescafe variation of the Benko gambit, the Fried Fox attack, the Toiletvariation or the sodium-attack (Na3).
Yeah, me too. I used to have problems against the sicilian. The important thing to remember about it is that as white you have to attack. So look for ways to sieze the initiative. Try to create play on the kingside, even if it means giving up the queenside. This is too vauge I know, but.. you'll understand once you get there =>
At our level, Pawn Sensei, it's my philosophy that opening study should take a back seat to everything else. I know the first few moves of several types of openings, but until I reach Expert, I'll keep my opening study to a minimum. I do like to research better ways to play the opening when I know I've blown that part of a particular game. Also, if I know my opp plays a certain type of opening, I like to bone up on what type of defense I should play. Other than that, though, I stick to middle and endgames.
I had problems with the Sicilian when first encountering this strange animal. Seiriwan (sp?) book on Winning Chess Openings has a great chapter which gives a great overview. (check your library) I end up pushing my pawns on the Kingside and have some good games
TS: The toiletvariation sounds like something that you get when you ate bad pizza.
CD: Opening study does take a backseat for me but the problem is I am changing my opening and defences and I need to know the first couple of moves to the most likely ones or I'll be dead it the water before I even get to the middle or endgame.
Nezha and takchess: Thanks for the tips. I'll keep those in mind!
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PS,
The toiletvariation of the Grand Prix attack against the Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Pc3) refers to the place where it was invented.
Though CD is right in general not to take much studytime for openings, in your case it's slightly different. Since you said you are a real beginner and because of the games you placed on this site it's a good idea to give a little attention to the opening.
There are a few rules for openings in general. You have now noticed yourself that you sin against these rules. At this stage it will be really useful to learn some openingsmoves that not conflict with those rules.
Two words, babe -- closed sicilian. 2.Nc6. Skip the theory leads to a balanced type of closed postion that sicilian players hate.
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