Smyslov_Fan wrote on 03/14/10 at 02:18:38:


http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1233078158/0

It's 11...Nfxd5 as mentioned in that thread, and black appears to be fine (at least based on the look I had into it).

Given even Kasparov's Gambit ("Gary's Gambit") in the Taimanov Maroczy has been resurrected and appears fully viable, I wouldn't bother with the Nb5/c4 scheme. There's other routes white can go to unsettle black.

Meat wrote on 03/12/10 at 09:05:42:


I don't have much personal experience with it except as Black in blitz games, but it has been played by Kramnik, Anand, Karpov, and Fischer to name just a few.

The main line continues 5...d6 6.c4 and White has a nice structural advantage that can be turned out to torture Black regardless of his rating.  It's probably good enough to be a repertoire choice all the way through 2300-2400 FIDE. (Tho, as some have pointed out elsewhere, repertoires are becoming dinosaurs in chess thinking.)

Though I see what he's talking about, I don't know that I share zoo's low opinion of 5.Nb5.  Even so I don't think that it really qualifies as an anti-Sicilian, certainly not as the term is defined on this site.  It's simply one way of playing against the Taimanov.

Schaakhamster wrote on 03/11/10 at 11:46:27:


Precisely!
Since the prevalent opinion seems to be that there's no challanging anti-sicilian, what do you guys think about 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Ndb5 ? I normally enjoy Maroczy setups for white and hope that they're not blacks comfort zone. Does anyone have experience with this line?

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 16:01:40:

Sure, that's how I initially thought as well. Playing the Classical Dutch with a few extra tempi, what more can one ask?
Except that those extra tempi are not there, mainly because White has played an early Nc3 and has not castled yet. So in several cases ...d4 is best answered with Nb1, which gives up two tempi. In a few other cases Black can play strongly ...dxe4. In other words, compared to the Classical Dutch White has played e2-e4 to quickly, which means that ...d5 is a counterstroke, not e2-e4. That makes some difference indeed.

Meat wrote on 03/09/10 at 09:25:10:


I find this a bit puzzling. Why are people satisfied with equality when they play some Anti Sicilian but expect an advantage when playing the Open Sicilian? 1.e4 c5 is theoretically equal. Ask Fischer and Kasparov. So White's strategy must be posing problems, which is not that hard given the asymmetrical structure of the position. Imo several sidelines - like h3 in the Keres Attack - pose a lot more problem than 95% of the Anti Sicilians. Given the low number of games such sidelines do not even require that much study.

ChevyBanginStyle wrote on 03/09/10 at 16:25:35:


If you overpress in a position where you mistakenly thought you were better, that's a failure of prophylactic thinking. Whether your pieces are black or white, and whether you initally played a critical or an offbeat opening is totally irrelevant to this since every position must be assessed individually on its merits, the available plans etc.

Re: this GPA line, I merely claimed White was not worse. I've played both the Leningrad and Classical Dutch with reversed colors, and in most lines it's equal, in some lines Black gets too ambitious and White gets chances for an advantage anyway. I never assume I'm better simply because I'm White, with such lines I'm just aiming to reach positions I understand better than my opponent. Of course there is a psychological point to choosing a reversed opening, but once you're out of known theory you just play the game as best you can, as in any other opening.

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 16:01:40:


As someone who seriously considered the Bird for a brief period, I have to say one of the problems of reversed Dutch systems is that White's "counterplay" is off rhythm. Quality sometimes counts more than quantity in the tempo game. For instance, it's funny to me that 1.f4 d6 2.e4 d5 is probably better for Black than 1.e4 d5.

I don't think White is necessarily worse, but if he plays as though he's better, he'll certainly be worse.

There's no need to play an anti sicilian or something that gives a theoretical advantage, it's just that the open main lines didn't appeal to me. My impression always was that black has an easy and safe game and white really needs to be very accurate to gain some advantage or initiative. That probably isn't true from a theoretical standpoint, but it's how things turned out in my games.
Generally I want to play the open, being a 1900-2000 club player I think I should work on this type of positions to expand my knowledge. 
So maybe I should invest in some beating the sicilian book, but I really don't want to start learning masses of Khalifman analysis, that's just more theory than necessary.

It seems to me that I more often come across GMs playing that h3 stuff in the Keres than h4+Rg1.

There is a lot of good advice so far.  Here is my own contribution.

I have generally played the Grand Prix after 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 and 2...d6 3.f4 (though 3.d4!? is also quite interesting here, with transposition to the Chekhover as demonstrated in some Gad Guseinov games).  However, I find that the Closed lines simply give White no advantage against 2...e6! and so I also recommend switching to the Open with 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 etc.  I generally angle toward the fianchetto lines (as discussed in Nigel Davies's Taming the Sicilian -- and see more below), but lines with d4 followed eventually by f4 are also interesting for the Grand Prix player (as discussed in Dangerous Weapons: The Sicilian, for instance).

I often have opponents play 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 d5?! (which can also arise via the Two Knights French), but White seems to get a big advantage, as shown in a Dana Mackenzie video at ChessLectures.com:

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2007.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Popov, Mikhail"]
[Black "Savchenko, Alexei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C00"]
[TimeControl "240+2"]
[Annotator "Practice"]
[PlyCount "23"]

1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 c5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bb5+ Nc6 6. Qe2+ Be7 (6... Ne7 7. Ne5 Qd6 8. d4 cxd4 9. Bf4 dxc3 10. Nxc6 cxb2 11. Rd1 Qxf4 12. Nxe7+ Kd8 13. Nxd5 Bb4+ 14. Nxb4+ Kc7 15. Nd5+ Kb8 16. Nxf4 a6 17. Qe5+ Ka7 18. Be2 f6 19. Qxb2 Bf5 20. Rb1 Rab8 21. Qb6+ Ka8 22. Bxa6 Be4 23. Ne6 Rhc8 24. Nc7+ Rxc7 25. Qxc7 Re8 26. Be2 Bc6 27. Rb3 {1-0 Mackenzie-Beilin, 2008}) 7. Ne5 Qd6 8. d4 cxd4 9. Bf4 dxc3 10. Nxc6 Qxf4 11. Nxe7+ Kf8 12. Ng6+ 1-0

Following 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6! White should play 4.d4 or 4.Bb5!? since 4.g3?! is not so good due to 4...d5! 5.exd5 exd5 and Bg4 will be annoying.

Joel Benjamin's "Anti-Sicilian" series at Jeremy Silman's old site is very interesting: 
http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_opng_shrtcts/archive.html
The whole repertoire may interest you, but see especially parts four through eight for dealing with an early ...e6.  

Against 3...Nc6 Benjamin advocates 4.Bb5!? (I prefer the simple 4.d4 now though I've tried 4.Bb5), and against the 3...a6 set-up -- where Black plays for an early b5 and Bb7 pressuring the e4 pawn -- he advocates a Closed line (with Nf3), playing d3 to defend the pawn and going for the f4 break by playing Ng5 (and then to h3 if necessary).  

I'm not crazy about that, so I have analyzed the d4 lines where White fianchettoes the Bishop and sacs the e-pawn if necessary, as played by Tal and more recently by Gad Guseinov:
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2006/12/two-knights-sicilian-pa...
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2006/anti-paulsen.htm
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2007/08/richard-pallisers-fight...
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2007/anti-paulsen.htm
In comments to the last blog post, ChessPub member Katar suggested some very interesting improvements for White.

Hope that helps.  But 2...e6! has really made me wonder why I don't just play the Open lines directly:
http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2010/01/five-easy-pieces-open-s...

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 01:22:33:

That makes much more sense imo.

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 01:22:33:

The transpositions to the Scheveningen bother me.

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 01:22:33:

But here I have two answers. The first one is the old-fashioned 6.g4 h6 7.g5 hxg5 8.Bxg5 and the second one 6.Be3 Be7 7.g4. The choice depends somewhat of the rest of the Open Sicilian repertoire.

Stigma wrote on 03/09/10 at 01:22:33:

In fact White has some problems to maintain equality after 5...d5. Therefore I ruled out the GP myself a few years ago.

Meat wrote on 03/08/10 at 12:58:07:

No. All the reliable defences in the Morra Accepted involve ...e6 at some point. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b4 cxb4 4.d4 Black can chose between the French Wing's Gambit (...d5) or a setup with ...d6.
Frankly I think you are wasting your time. 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 is the way to go.

Another interesting try is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3!? as recommended in Dangerous Weapons: Anti-Sicilians.

Here White may well play d4 later, perhaps prepared with c3.

Meat wrote on 03/08/10 at 12:58:07:


If White plays 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3, then Black can play safely with 4...Nf6 to transpose to the c3 Sicilian. I'm guessing this would probably would be a common response, especially since Delchev recommends 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 Nf6 in The Safest Sicilian.

Delchev covers the Wing Gambit with 3.b4 cxb4 briefly in his book. He recommends an approach with 4...Nf6 analogous to the c3 Sicilian: 4.a3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd5 6.axb4 Bxb4 7.c3 (7.c4!?) Be7 8.d4 d6; 4.d4 Nf6 5.Bd3 d5 6.e5 Ne4!

Meat wrote on 03/08/10 at 09:34:47:


Two Anti-Sicilians not mentioned by ChevyBanginStyle are 3.c4 and 3.c3. However, I'm not a fan of either of them due to 3...Nc6 4.Nc3 e5! and 3.c3 d5 4.e5 Nc6 5.d4 Nh6 (the Advance French is not at all dangerous for Black), since 4.ed5 is known to be equally harmless. 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.d4 cd4 6.cd4 d6 isn't bad either, although I think White has some small chances of a pull in that variation, starting with 7.Bc4.

My advice would be to stick with the Open, and learn the ...e6 lines properly as White. The key books are 'Opening for White According to Anand', 'Dismantling the Sicilian', 'Experts vs. the Sicilian' and 'Beating the Sicilian', and there are others which aren't at all bad.

I'm relatively new to playing 1. e4 but I've experienced problems against the (non-Scheveningen) e6-Sicilians. On the other hand I enjoy playing against the Najdorf, Sveshnikov or Dragon. 
So my question would be is there a good anti-sicilian or move order trick to use against those.
I'm thinking of something like the GPA against d6, something that works a little better than usual because black has played e6.
Any ideas? Or do I have to stick with the open and work through several Khalifman tomes?