wcywing wrote on 07/03/08 at 01:08:16:
does Lev Alburt recommend the classical sicilian as well? i heard his comprehensive chess course was based on soviet chess training. of course who knows which soviet coach gave Lev his lessons.
As a young player, Alburt played the Sicilian Four Knights for a while but gave it up after this defeat by twenty-year old Anatoly Karpov:
[Event "Daugavpils"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1971.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Karpov, Anatoly"]
[Black "Alburt, Lev"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B45"]
[PlyCount "111"]
[EventDate "1971.??.??"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Ndb5 Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8.
Nxc3 d5 9. exd5 exd5 10. Bd3 O-O 11. O-O d4 12. Ne2 Qd5 13. Nf4! Qd6 14. Nh5! Ng4
15. Bf4 Qd8 16. Ng3 Qh4 17. Nf5 Bxf5 18. Bxf5 Nh6 19. Bg3 Qg5 20. Be4 f5 21. f4
Qg6 22. Bf3 Ng4 23. Qd3 Rad8 24. Rfe1 Kh8 25. Re2 Rfe8 26. Rae1 Re3 27. Qb5
Rxe2 28. Bxe2 Ne3 29. Qd3 h6 30. Bf3 Re8 31. b4 a6 32. c3 Ng4 33. Rxe8+ Qxe8
34. cxd4 Qd7 35. d5 Ne7 36. h3 Nf6 37. Bh4 Qd6 38. Qd4 b6 39. a4 a5 40. bxa5
bxa5 41. Be1 Nc6 42. Qc4 Ne7 43. Bxa5 Nexd5 44. Qd4 Qe6 45. Bd2 Ne4 46. a5 Nxd2
47. Qxd2 Nf6 48. Kh2 Kh7 49. Qe2 Ne4 50. a6 Qc6 51. a7 Qa4 52. Qe3 h5 53. Bxh5
Qa5 54. Be2 g6 55. Bf3 Nd2 56. Qe7+ 1-0
In 'Chess Openings for Black Explained', Alburt wrote: "I know now that my abandoning the system altogether was a very premature reaction. After all, Karpov went on to dominate top-level chess until Kasparov arrived on the scene."
The Sicilian 4N is a strange line, very untypical of the Sicilian as a whole. In the main line Black gets easy development and a safe king, in return for taking on an IQP and conceding the bishop pair.
In Chess Life (October 1991), Alburt & Parr made the interesting point: "Among weaker players the 'advantage' of the two bishops, which can be so important in master play, may actually be a disadvantage. Knights are generally more effective pieces and there is simply no point in teaching 'D' players openings in which the main point is to garner the two bishops."
I am also reminded that Tarrasch once opined that when you have an IQP it is good to have the knight pair.
Whatever the assessment of the main line above, the main problem with the 4N might be that White has two earlier options leading to very different types of position: the super-sharp 7 Bf4 and the weird and wonderful 6 Nxc6 bxc6 7 e5 Nd5 8 Ne4 Qc7 9 f4 Qb6 10 c4 Bb4+ 11 Ke2! f5.
I should add that 7 Nd6+ was long dismissed as harmless but might be tricky for Black to deal with over the board.