Why you should play the Sicilian?!

Back in 1972 when I was a 1400-ish player I saw a black win in the Sicilian Dragon in Chess Life magazine that caught my attention. I bought David Levy's book on the Dragon and went through it from cover to cover. Because of Fischer's influence in the US, 1. e4 was by far the most common move, and 2. Nf3 and 3. d4 was the most popular way of meeting the Sicilian. Pretty soon I was trouncing B players, had a plus score against A players, and even drew a few Experts. Twenty years later I renewed my interest in chess and expected that a quick Dragon refresh would keep the winning ways going. Unfortunately, I found myself playing everything but open Sicilians; Alapin, Grand Prix Attack, 3. Bb5+, Closed, KIA, even the Smith-Morra gambit. I stopped playing in tournaments in 2002 but still play at a club. Except for a few 5-minute games, I can't remember the last time I got to play an open Sicilian.

I have been playing for 60 years, never played Open Sicilian, but i am going to start now. Thanks for the inspiration and the starter guide

What about Kalashnikov?

I don't play the open Sicilian because it's way too theoretical and i try to know the ins and outs of my openings.

"why would you avoid the open Sicilian"

To play against it correctly, i need to know every variation my opponent might use against me. To play it against me correctly, my opponent needs to know ONE variation I don't know.

Levy saw this video and threw up

I'm a french plyr. U sold me when u said check a rino

can u beat the computer in a sicilian???

I also switched recently from BLK side Caro Kann which I have played for years to the Sicilian Kan. And find the Sicilian games for Blk are much more wild. It's good to have both choices. I can slow things down with the solid Caro or play aggressive with Sicilian Kan!

Thank you for this! I was a Grand Prix & closed Sicilian player. Why? Because I was worried about all the theory.  And I ended up learning a large amount of theory anyway!
After going the possible systems for white in open Sicilian, I realized it's not that hard at all! You need to know a few main set ups and what the plan is and then just play good tactical chess. And boy are you right! The open Sicilian is so much FUN! It's actually more aggessive than the Grand Prix. Especially with 0-0-0, and then hurtling your g and h pawns at the enemy king. It's a fast attack!
This is more exciting than my closed Sicilian was.

@ChessCoachAndras Why is the open considered white's best response when even grandmasters win more with the Rossolimo and Stockfish gives them the same evaluation? (I know black can also play 2.d6 to avoid it, and I understand the limitations of engines in the opening phase). Do you think it's simply because even grandmasters haven't fully explored how to counter the Rossolimo?
Regardless, I think the main reason you vouch for aspiring players to learn the Open is for them to truly participate in chess history, play dynamic imbalanced games and learn a lot (from which there are so many historic games to study). So I totally get that.

Great coach, love you video's. Soon as you stop calling it repair-twaarr and instead rep-o-twar you'll go from great to perfect

Thank you for making this video it helped me get over my fear of the Sicilian and now I love playing it as White and Black! So often you hear people saying to avoid the Sicilian because it's too heavy, but frankly there's so much juice to be squeezed out of the opening that my opponents are often completely out of prep by move 5-7 and we just play a razor sharp game!

There is nothing wrong with hamburgers!

Best🤭😆 chess motivator online

Love and appreciate your content so thank you Sir!