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Chess Instruction
Defence, Mafia Style Just how important is the right to move first? In the good old days Black assumed that his job was to neutralise a White initiative, and would concentrate his efforts on setting up some kind of bulwark in the centre. The problem with this approach is that it usually means a draw at best and these days he tends to adopt a different approach - one of counterattack. The opening which most clearly epitomises this idea is the Sicilian Defence (1.e4 c5). Black immediately sets out to gain space on the queenside and after White's natural plan of 2.Nf3 followed by 3.d4, he gains an additional trump, the half-open c-file. In the Sicilian Black's strategy is "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". In short it is defence, Mafia style. This is not how the Sicilian got its name but rather your writer's poetic interpretation. In fact it acquired its name because it was first analysed by a chess master from Sicily. I doubt that he even dreamed about its potential for chessboard vengeance. These days the Sicilian is the most popular of all the openings, with its various different forms having been named after Grandmasters such as Boleslavsky, Najdorf and Sveshnikov, towns such as Scheveningen and Gothenburg, mythical beasts such as the Dragon and weapons such as the Kalashnikov! Perhaps the most Sicilian of them all is the dreaded Poisoned Pawn Variation which has caused many a White player to end up "sleeping with the fishes". Given the profusion of books about chess it is hardly surprising that a fair number of these are devoted to the Sicilian. Amongst the best volumes on this opening are the Batsford books, Beating the Sicilian 3 by John Nunn and Joe Gallagher, Winning with the Sicilian by Mark Taimanov and The Sicilian Scheveningen by Gary Kasparov and Alexander Nikitin. Grandmaster Mark Taimanov's book is one of my favourites, a beautifully written work which reflects his rich lifetime experience with this, his favourite opening. With deeply annotated games and revealing explanations of the strategic ideas he describes how he developed his own Taimanov system. One of the few books I have actually read from cover to cover, I highly recommend it. In the following game Taimanov had to win in order to qualify for the next stage of the World Championship qualifiers. It was played in the last round of the 1969 Soviet Championship.
Lutikov - Taimanov
For more from GM Davies,
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