Pm me too pleez.

and sounds like a pretty good fit from what you just said.

A+

Just got through with my first lesson. Geeze, that was nice. The guy's vision of the board is just incredible. Can't believe how much we covered in just two hours. He didn't like my Qb6 sicilian. Looks like by next week I'll be the world's foremost expert in it, or dropping it.

I'm gonna vote for Dropping It.

The funny thing is, all the beating the sicilian books and stuff give terrible lines against the Qb6 sicilian. The most critical line is, by far, the pawn sacrifice stuff with an early Be3/Nb5. Amusing that an otherwise incredible defense is only threatened only by a gambit that nobody plays.

Have you checked out Grivas's book on it?

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide...1341160&sr=1-1

And also have you read this review on it?

http://www.chessville.com/reviews/AC...asSicilian.htm

I read this some months back and I guess I forgot to post it but I remembered it now.


The 2nd Amazon reviewer (who I just looked up, and is 2110 USCF) said this:

I highlighted in Bold the sentence I'm referring to mainly.

That sicilian is very different in that you have Nc6 instead of e6.

Write the book please on your Sicilian.

I find that I get increasingly annoyed by the focus on the draw ratio by the editors at chessbase -- in for example, the recent coverage of the Russian Championships. If they invited me to play next year, the draw ratio would definitely go down because I'd lose every game but it wouldn't make the chess any better.

I understand that short draws are disappointing for spectators, but the emphasis on draw ratio is a little absurd.

Short draws are disappointing for the game of chess, imo. No other event allows competitors to just agree to just call it a game whenever they want - not only do they get to call it a game but they even get points for doing so. Imagine if in football two teams could agree to just not play each other yet somehow also obtained ranking points for the season somehow. It's ridiculous. Yet that's what we have in chess. People can play 15 moves of theory in a few minutes, say they played chess, and go home.

If they both voluntarily play into some hyper theoretical marshall gambit in the spanish and follow a line that leads to a forced perpetual from black then that's one thing - playing 20 moves that lead to a theoretically equal position with chances for both sides and then calling it quits, that's another all together.

[Event "Buenos Aires sim"]
[Site "Buenos Aires"]
[Date "1992.??.??"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Black "Ricardi, Pablo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A33"]
[WhiteElo "2780"]
[BlackElo "2465"]
[PlyCount "79"]
[EventDate "1992.??.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "2"]
[EventCountry "ARG"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1996.11.15"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g3 Bb4 7. Bg2 O-O 8.
O-O a6 9. Bf4 Re8 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Bd6 Bxd6 12. Qxd6 Qe7 13. Qxe7 Rxe7 14. e4
Rb8 15. b3 e5 16. Rfd1 Kf8 17. c5 Ne8 18. f4 Nc7 19. f5 a5 20. Kf2 Nb5 21. Nxb5
Rxb5 22. Rac1 Rb4 23. Rc4 Rxc4 24. bxc4 Ba6 25. Bf1 g6 26. Rd6 gxf5 27. exf5
Re8 28. f6 Rd8 29. Bd3 Ke8 30. h4 e4 31. Bxe4 Bxc4 32. Bxh7 Bxa2 33. h5 Rb8 34.
h6 Rb2+ 35. Kg1 Bb1 36. Bd3 Bxd3 37. Rxd3 Rb1+ 38. Kg2 Rb2+ 39. Kh3 Rb1 40. Rb3
1-0

What a nice positional crush from Kasparov. One bad piece creates disharmony amongst all of black's forces. By the time he can free it, he's losing by force.

White was 2465. This was a simul.

Black* was 2465

and I think that's Garompon, but I'm not sure..

Thanks for the correction, yeah black.

Nah, Garompon is Pablo Zarnicki.

Ah,

So close, Yet so far.

There's something so psychologically satisfying about being able to transpose a guy who tries to force a benoni into a symmetric english. That has to be a victory in and of itself.

+1

Winning the opening battle is almost as sweet as winning itself.

Frustrate. Exploit. Checkmate.

Opening analysis sure is eye opening. I've had similar positions to this a million times over yet never really bothered even looking at any games played from here. I never realized the pawn can be tactically defended after Be3. Eg:

1. Be3! exd4 2. Nxd4 Nc5 3. Qc2 Qe7 4. Re1 Nfxe4?? 5. Nxe4 Nxe4 6. Bxe4 Qxe4 7. Bd2

DING +-

vnh

Can't wait til this happens in one of your games.

What an annoying game. Opponent plays a stupid trap opening and I'm too lazy and end up walking right into it.



1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Na6?

Without too much consideration, I just throw out 7. f3?? A terrible move as 7. e3 gives white a simply dominating position (7. e3 Nb4?? 8. Bxc4 +-). Black follows up with 7. .. Nd7?? Again, simply 8. Nxd7 gives white a dominating position. I play 8. Nxc4?? after which the game is -+. 8. .. e5 9. e4 exd and white's position is falling apart. It's actually a funny little trap opening that's taken out some big names, including Kramnik.

this is the coolest thing ever

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1564642

Wow, that was pretty cool. Where'd you find that?

That's a pretty well known Philidor trap. I've actually played that exact game a couple times

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1075495

This has a pretty amazing endging. Black makes an unsound sacrifice in the middlegame, then white exchanges his queen for two rooks and manages to trap black's queen. He can then basically play a K + minor pieces endgame up a piece.

Heh, well, that's a little less fun then, though it has to be nice to play that over the board. Somehow I learned how to play chess, but never 1.e4...maybe some day, although my troubles with the clock are bad enough as it is, playing out of book on move 1 doesn't sound like a smart plan.

Alkhateeb sure does seem to have bad technique. He gets a good position then lets it slide, over and over and over.

Since it's lo content, here I go.

I'm a sicilian dragon player. What's so wrong about this opening !? I've won some of the most important games of my career with some sharp lines of this defence.

Sicilian Dragon:

It can be very theoretical. Lines going up to 30+ moves for each side.

Also some lines lead directly to draws/3-reps.

It can be a great way to play for winning chances with Black though.