Originally posted by paultopiaI absolutely hate seeing that line as a Black Sicilianer, common on Yahoo, that's for sure, but then again, any agressive ASAP tactical line is common on Yahoo. They are not humans, but machines there, it seems, don't give a crapo about position, all tactics, hard to play against or understand. I didn't even know it had a name, I just called it, "the noob anti-Sicilian". 3. Bc4 is also a common noobish thing on Yahoo against the Sicilian, basicly that bishop will move, guaranteed. 😴
Does anyone know the 3. Bb5 lines? Called the Rossolimo, right? Anyone feel like giving a quickey introduction to the rest of us, in the spirit of public service and good fellowship? 😀
It's amazing, to be honest, what some players will do just to refute a Sicilian of any form, which is why I don't recommend it for new players. It's as if many players are scared of it, and would rather play a chess game of "chicken soup", then dare see a nice fair and balanced patterned Sicilian.
Common anti-Sicilians are c3 (weak, passive and pointless IMHO), the Smith Morra (well, I lost a game in 10 moves against it, but it was more so because I thought my opponent was an idiot and didn't pay attention, rather then it being any good, I think this is weak too), Bg5 (decent because it's a pain in the butt I suppose, anything that aggravates your opponent is worth it I guess, but again, it's easier to defend against then main Sicilian lines with white kingside attack), e5?! (Yes that's right, many players play e5, sometimes as early as move 2, the pawn looks weak and isolated, but it can usually be defended as much as attacked, and for some odd reason, I find the pawn a pain in the butt, spacial wise, it can be stoped by playing d6, but when I use the Kan or Taimanov. . .) and Bc4 (wtf is the point of this, Scholar's mate? Bah, play e6 as black)
Originally posted by mateuloseEveryone poo-pooh's Bc4, but I can't seem to refute it. I see a lot of Bc4 followed by c3, with the point obviously being to immediately get an iron solid center. It seems to work against me, so I dunno. I find that when I play the sicilian and someone follows with Bc4, I lose all grip on the center Maybe black can use the wasted time to start a kingside attack or something.
Bc4 (wtf is the point of this, Scholar's mate? Bah, play e6 as black)
I tried it once, didn't follow up with c3 however. The bishop turned out to be poorly placed in the middlegame and got chased around, but I managed to nudge it into a pawn-up endgame.
I've also tried gambiting the b pawn against it to divert it from the center. Very, very, very, very bad idea. I once managed to lose a knight AND a rook in one game that way.
Originally posted by mateuloseI don't quite agree with you:
I absolutely hate seeing that line as a Black Sicilianer, common on Yahoo, that's for sure, but then again, any agressive ASAP tactical line is common on Yahoo. They are not humans, but machines there, it seems, don't give a crapo about ...[text shortened]... f is the point of this, Scholar's mate? Bah, play e6 as black)has
-Bb5,my favorite since long 🙂 It's an old line,recommended by Euwe and quite often used by Spasski,if I'm not mistaking.It is currently being revived by a few GM's.Very tactical,yes,but hardly a 'noob-opening'.
-c3 is probably the most successfull 'anti-sicilian' system.By the way,I don't like the name 'anti-sicilian'.There's no rule that one HAS to play Nf3 and d4,now is there.In my view there's no such thing as an anti-sicilian,only lines with 2.Nf3 3.d4 and lines without,or a later d4.
Anyway,2.c3 certainly isn't weak,passive nor pointless.
-Bc4 on the third move looks weird indeed.I dunno about that,but I do know that the move was used by Fischer,but later in the game,around move 6-7 or so.See,Fischer-Sozin attack.
-The smith-morra?I tried it a few times and I agree,it sucks 😉
-2.e5?never ever saw that.Very strange,but maybe playable?😕
Sir Lot.
Originally posted by mateuloseWhat the heck happened????My previous mesage got cut in half and posted twice 😲😕
I absolutely hate seeing that line as a Black Sicilianer, common on Yahoo, that's for sure, but then again, any agressive ASAP tactical line is common on Yahoo. They are not humans, but machines there, it seems, don't give a crapo about ...[text shortened]... f is the point of this, Scholar's mate? Bah, play e6 as black)has
Mateulose, you REALLY need to stop worrying about 'bad' openings and concentrate on playing chess 😉
With regards to the Rossolimo, it is a nice system for White in that it is a network of variations with very few forced lines, so has much less tactical danger than the mainline systems. Still theory heavy at GM level, but at our level you are going to get a playable position with either colour.
A useful move order trick if you play Sicilian systems with ...e6; try playing it on move 2 rather than 4. So 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6, when 3.Bb5 makes no sense. Therefore 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5 (transposing back to the Rossolimo) Nge7, when one easy White plan to double Black's pawns (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.BxN bc) has been avoided.
I'm a dyed in the wool Sicilian player (the Najdorf if I can get it) but I think it's wrong to criticize the Rossolimo. I hadn't seen it much, but it's been played against me here six times with even results. In fact, in the last week I lost two games to it:one to player rated in the 1600's; another to a player in the 1700's, so I wouldn't call it a "beginner" or "rubbish" opening. I'd like to hear some real ideas against it; I've been blocking the check with the bishop and taking with the knight to maintain Black's standard setup, but on reflection it seems pretty useless to play the Queen to c7 if the file isn't half-open. Anybody else got some thoughts on the "Anti-Sicilians" (I hate the name, too).