Play the Sicilian Alapin - Part 1
We are happy to present the new opening course by GM Martin Lorenzini - Play the Sicilian Alapin - Part 1. In this database, GM Lorenzini covers all Black's moves, except 2...Nf6.
The database consists of 21 theoretical chapters, 4 typical pawn structures (model games for each structure), 20 interactive test positions, and Memory Booster.
Below, you can take a look at how the author presents the database himself.
Preview by the Author
The starting position of the current repertoire arises after 1.e4 c5 2.c3
When asking ourselves what to play against the Sicilian Defence, we find ourselves before a wide range of different approaches. The most usual is to choose an open Sicilian with a sharp fight. This requires a lot of study time. Once done, it again requires resources to stay updated on new games of each variation. This is perfectly feasible for a professional player, but an amateur may find it to take up too much time that would be better spent on other aspects of the game.
The Alapin Variation is a different, more economic approach. It has a reputation of being peaceful and for players without great ambition, but I consider this an error of judgment. Move 2.c3 is a choice for the pragmatic player looking to fight for victory while saving resources. Different types of positions can be reached, from high complexity to endgames with a slight advantage. Many typical schemes, for example, isolated pawn positions, where the white player can demonstrate his greater familiarity with them.
From the other angle, it is often annoying for the average Sicilian player to face structures that are rare in his practice. And as nowadays even on the highest level players often stay away from mainline theory to avoid preparation, it has been put into practice by Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Ponomariov, and Adams, among others. There is also a group of strong grandmasters who have played it regularly for many years, like Tiviakov, Rozentalis, and Sveshnikov. For all these reasons, I recommend adding the Alapin to your repertoire and wish you many victories with it.
In the first part of this huge project, I cover the moves 2...d5, 2...g6, 2...d6, 2...Qa5, 2...e5, and 2...a6.
In order to make the study of the theoretical variations easier, I have also covered 4 very important pawn structures.
Structure 1
Structure 2
Structure 3
Structure 4
The coverage of each one of these 4 structures features three extensively annotated model games. I strongly recommend to study the pawn structures before proceeding with the theoretical section.
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