Mastering the Richter-Rauzer: Plans, Tactics & Pawn Structures by GM Vladimir Malakhov
After Bxf6 gxf6, Black's position looks damaged: doubled f-pawns and a king with no comfortable home. Yet this is the Classical Sicilian, the oldest way to play the Sicilian and a choice of World Champions such as Botvinnik, Spassky and Kramnik.
The reason is a paradox at the heart of the Richter-Rauzer. Once the queens leave the board, the broken structure stops being a weakness and becomes a strength.
A structure, not a repertoire
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6, White usually plays Qd2, 0-0-0 and Bxf6. Black gets the bishop pair, the half-open g-file and a central pawn mass ready for ...e5 or ...d5.
White aims to open the position with f4-f5 or f4-e5 before Black’s bishops come alive. Black counters with ...a6, ...b5-b4 and the rook on the c-file, always looking for the right moment to trade queens.
The author's approach
GM Vladimir Malakhov is clear from the start: this is not a theoretical repertoire and there are no long lines to memorise. In his experience, even strong players make the first ten moves on autopilot and go wrong exactly when the first real decision arrives.
The course therefore focuses on those decisions: which exchanges to allow, where the pawn breaks lie, and when a natural move becomes a serious mistake. Because the same doubled f-pawn structure appears in many other Sicilian lines, the ideas apply well beyond the Rauzer.
Seventy years of one structure
Four model games, one from each era, show how the understanding of both sides evolved:
- Smyslov – Botvinnik, 1957
- Fischer – Spassky, 1972
- Galkin – Malakhov, 2008
- Yakubboev – Abdusattorov, 2026
The "5 Things to Know" section then gathers the key ideas: don't close the queenside, the Na4! blockade, the ...e5 and ...b4 reactions, the ...Rxc3 exchange sacrifice, and restricting White's knight.
Premium Course Features
- 4 model games from 1957 to 2026
- 2 instructive endgames
- 4 critical moments
- 4 typical mistakes
- 5 Things to Know
- 5 additional model games, from Botvinnik to Kasparov
- 20 test positions
- Multilingual PGN (English, German, French, Spanish)
From understanding to repertoire
If you want to build this understanding into a complete set of lines for Black, GM Alexey Dreev's recent Deep Classical Sicilian: A Complete Repertoire for Black – Part 1 is a natural next step.
Start with the structure
In Malakhov's words, understanding the structure in the Rauzer is worth much more than knowing the theory. Take your time with the model games, and the next time Bxf6 gxf6 appears on your board, you will know exactly what to play for.