Facing the Anti Sicilians | Grandmaster Repertoire

hi friends molten here and welcome back to another repertoire video today i'm looking at the sicilian defense which is one of my favorite openings to play against one e4 i'm going to walk through all white's anti-sicilian options today going through each of my recommendations against each line so by the end of the video you should have a complete working repertoire and as always you can jump around to order different time stamps to look at the line which interests you the most so it's going to be a long video so we're going to get straight into it i hope you enjoyed the video and learn a lot from it see you in a few seconds [Music] so before i get into the video our good friends at forward chess have kindly given me two chest books to give away to any two viewers all you have to do is leave a comment down below if you're not sure what to say then just leave a comment on what is your favorite chess opening so forward chess is a phone app which allows you to read and store books from some of the world's best chess publications you can easily play through games with its integrated game viewer or analyze with its built-in chess engine i think it's great for reading chess books on the go and without the need of a board and also carrying lots of books with you also use the coupon code molten and you'll get 10 off when you spend 25 or more for a limited time so make sure you leave a comment down below and i'll pick out two random winners so start things off with the wing gambit and different variations of the wing gambit which starts off with the move 2 b4 but before that white has a few other options such as the move pointer a3 after this we can play the move point to g6 b4 and bishop g7 we know white was going to play b4 so we may as well get that bishop to the long diagonal as soon as possible now if c3 then we can play a move we're going to be seeing a lot in this variation and let's move pawn to d5 horn takes queen takes when this knight can't hit the queen with knight to c3 so if after b4 will capture it and here why it has a few different options for example if the move pawn to d4 then we can play the move pawn to d5 heading out in the center if takes then we don't need to bring our queen out because we might get hit by the move pawn to c4 but knight f6 is good and then recapturing with the knight if instead the move pawn to a3 is played then we can go for this move pawn to d5 and there's a trap here which i've seen a lot of people fall into especially i'm at a lower to intermediate and that's to move pawn takes queen takes and here instead of knight to f3 which is the best move i've seen captures and queen e5 forking the king and winning the rook of course here move 5 knight f3 is a better move after which i suggest we play the move pawn to e5 here the most important thing is not to capture this pawn and allow white's bishop to get to this long diagonal very easily instead we always want white to capture us on v4 so pawn takes bishop takes the knight can't go to c3 so our queen is fairly safe here c3 we can even counter with the move pawn to e4 here or we can just drop the bishop back but e4 is very interesting move and after takes we can just capture here queen takes takes takes and knight e7 should be more than enough um as position for white since for black sins and white has a lot of weak pawns everywhere if on move three white goes bishop to b2 then we can play the move knight to f6 e5 knight to d5 a3 again e6 we let white capture on b4 takes takes and i think black is also fine though so on move three we'll look at knight to f3 now again we play the move pawn to d5 pawn takes knight f6 pawn to c4 by white to defend the pawn and then after captures on c3 bishop b5 check if knight takes e3 then we can just take here on d5 hence the check knight bd7 knight takes c3 a6 bishop back to e2 and black can just play the move point to g6 here and we're doing perfectly fine because we're just fianchetto and slowly we'll win the pawn back on d5 a better version of the wing gambit i think is actually to delay the win gambit and this one i found to be a little bit better version for white and you do need to be a little bit careful after the move knight f3 especially for those of you who play the move knight c6 here after the move b4 i found that the one i enjoy the most is to actually play knight takes b4 here and after c3 dropping the knight back to c6 and after the move pawn to d4 again countering in the center right away with the move pawn to d5 and i quite um like this particular move order for black so next we have to move to b3 which is an interesting option by white to fianchetto right away on this long diagonal and the move i suggest for black actually seems a little bit counterintuitive at first because it's the point of g6 we're going to find keto second so it doesn't really make sense to play this move but we'll see that it's not straightforward for white to take advantage of this at all after bishop b2 we have knight f6 and here white has a number of different options all of them mainly trying to take advantage of the fact that black hasn't yet put the bishop on g7 so we'll consider each one one at a time starting with the move queen to f3 so the point of queen f3 of course is to play e5 and take away this d5 retreat square from the knight we can still play the move knight c6 here after the move point to e5 we can just drop the knight back to g8 and this is totally fine one of the main ideas is that if ever white pushes this pawn up again then we can always play this move point to f6 which we'll see in the next variations as well so after the move queen e3 attacking the c5 pawn we can continue with bishop to g7 queen takes c5 here is not possible because pawn to d6 would win the pawn back and open up this attack on the bishop on b2 so knight f3 instead and now we have the move knight to h6 bishop to b5 and here black can play to move queen to b6 knight to c3 castles and i think black is already doing perfectly fine here in this position because everything is nice and defended we're also threatening the move knight to g4 and knight to f5 bringing the knight into the game with tempo so instead of queen f3 another option is to move bishop to c4 after this i suggest that we play the move point to d6 because if bishop g7 e5 can become a problem again bishop takes f6 let's say pawn takes knight c3 this is the really the only continuation that makes sense and white is trying to take advantage of this square on d5 here but i think this is perfectly okay for black again we have the two bishops after all and we can undouble our pawns with the move pawn to f5 takes bishop takes knight g3 let's say queen e7 check is a very strong move and worst case we can just trade queens and get a slightly better position with the two bishops so next we have to move point to h4 going for a direct kingside attack so after this we can just continue with the move bishop to g7 point to e5 knight to d5 and in this position white has two main moves one is again queen f3 to try and hit the knight we can just drop the knight to b4 knight a3 and knight c6 hitting this e5 pawn which is often weak when the queen goes to f3 square born to e6 here is a very nice tactical try by white of course we can't take the bishop because queen takes f7 would be checkmate but here we can just castle with a very pleasant position for example takes takes captures captures and white is very underdeveloped here if instead h5 is played on move 6 then we can play the move point to d6 so taking advantage of this long diagonal and knight f3 is met by bishop to g4 knight c6 is also a playable move and we're putting immediate pressure on this e5 pawn again if unreal 4 knight c3 is played then we have to move bishop to g7 e5 is met by knight h5 this time knight to f3 we can play the move knight c6 and again we see that white is having problems on this square so following through with the main line we have the move point to e5 on roof 4 and here knight d5 pawn to e6 which is what most people would be worried about when they enter into this type of position here carlson has demonstrated that it's perfectly fine for black after the move point to f6 pawn takes and here we can go for the move queen takes which looks unusual at first but it's totally fine for positions which resemble a meroxie bind which is what black is going for here we're going to put the pawn on e5 the point c5 creating this nice bind in the center and controlling a lot of white central pawn breaks we're blocking the bishop but this light squared bishop is going to go to b7 instead so the player might continue knight c3 knight c6 bishop b5 knight to c7 this is a very common retreat for positions in the meroxy bind and for example here bishop takes would be met by queen takes and bishop d7 here is perfectly fine if instead white retreats with bishop c4 then we can continue with the move pawn to b6 and this bishop at the moment is stopping us from castling but we can always get rid of the bishop later on we can even play the move bishop to a6 if we really need to so this is my suggestion against one b3 so let's move on to d3 now so after the move to d3 white's idea is mainly to go into some sort of grand prix or close to ceiling type of position whereby he hasn't really committed this knight to the c3 square and gives extra options of pushing c3d4 later on so as black we need to be a little bit wary and a little bit careful of this i continue with the move knight to c6 and here let's say instead of g3 white goes for f4 then we can continue with the move pawn to d5 hitting out in the center right away if pawn takes then queen takes is perfectly fine the tempo doesn't matter here because we've broken up white central pawns and we can just retreat if instead after d5 we have e5 we can play knight h6 here and i think this is a good version of a french because we haven't really closed the center yet with the move pawn to e6 so we have extra options with our pieces if instead the move g3 on move 3 is played and then we can hit out in the center immediately with d5 if you want to go for g6 this would be totally fine as well and this is what i'll show later on in close sicilian type of positions and this would most likely transpose if white continues and with knight c3 but it can be slight differences when white goes for a d4 pawn push instead i'm suggesting d5 which simply equalizes by force here because after the move point to d5 white has only a few options the main one being of course bishop g2 but he can also play the move knight to d2 after which i'm suggesting knight f6 bishop g2 and here again going for a type of meroxy bind setup with the move pawn to e5 pawn takes knight takes d5 knight c4 and bishop e7 which i feel is very comfortable position for black if pawn takes then queen takes is very strong knight f3 and here i like to move knight to d4 bishop g4 is also an option but i think knight d4 is a little bit more accurate here so after this move let's say knight to d2 we can continue with the move queen e6 check just forcing a few pieces off the board of course knight e4 is not an option because some sort of f5 maybe we take the knight first and then play f5 would pick up a piece here so bishop e2 and now we have to move knight takes e2 queen takes e2 and it's playing knight f6 we can also trade queens if we want to and with the bishop power no pawn structural weaknesses black should be very comfortable so on move 4 bishop g2 is the main move and after captures captures the easiest one is just to trade queens here and play say b6 to bring this bishop onto this long diagonal and i don't see why black can ever be worse in this position so it should be very comfortable for both sides so now we have the move to g3 which is slightly different from the inclusion of d3 because after g3 right away again we go d5 but we have some extra options with black after takes queen takes knight f3 this time we should play the move bishop to g4 and here there are two main moves which i've seen being played one is bishop g2 and the other one is bishop to e2 after bishop e2 we have knight c6 h3 we can just uh drop the bishop back to f5 also if knight c3 here on move six then we can just drop the queen back to d7 and this is perfectly okay after h3 bishop f5 knight c3 queen d6 bishop to c4 we can continue with the move pawn to e6 a6 and i think this is very comfortable again for black because we're just developing the rest of our pieces quite harmoniously so after the move bishop to g2 instead we can throw in this very important check which has been played a number of times and that is to move queen to e6 so after the move queen to e2 we just trade queens and play knight c6 and this is very good for black because the king is stuck in the center so after the move king to f1 here we can play the move knight to c6 and continue developing which has been okay for black in the past but a more trendy aligned is recently to play to move queen to a6 check again just to get the queen out of the way after the move pawn to d3 then we continue with the move knight to c6 knight to c3 and here black should go for a bind in the center with the move point to e5 and then move pawn to f6 so here for example f6 bishop to e3 and e5 stops a lot of white's counter play in the center we should also not give up our light squared bishop because this is a very important piece to sort of block up a lot of the holes we've created um in this particular setup h3 bishop to h5 if white goes g4 we drop the bishop back to f7 and i think everything is fine black is probably going to play knight d4 at some point maybe knight to e7 maybe castle's queen side with a very um unclear play here to continue on something might happen along the lines of a3 rook to d8 here probably castle's queen side is very risky because white might be able to play a move such as b4 now and open up the a file to attack our king hence after the move rook to d8 let's say king to g1 we get very unclear position once again but one where i think black has some pretty good chances now if you don't like the complications that happened after queen a6 then a much easier version is just to play knight c6 which is also very good and after the move h3 we can just drop the bishop back to h5 and black is doing okay here as well let's say d3 the queen can drop back to the d7 square and black has very comfortable development again we can castle the king usually to the queen side we can decide whether we want to put the pawn on e6 or e5 e6 is 10 to what most people will play here and then we can just continue developing our knight to f6 bishop goes to e7 d6 maybe castle's queen side maybe cast was king side with what i see to be a very comfortable position as well and this is probably the easier option of the two to play now if white goes for an immediate pawn to f4 here without playing the move knight c3 then black should hit out in the sense we have to move pawn to d5 right away and here white has a couple of options for example if white pushes the point up the board then we can continue with knight h6 knight f3 knight c6 with a very comfortable position similar to a french where we haven't committed the pawn to e6 so we could even trade off this bishop for the knight then play e6 and bring our knight to f5 with a very comfortable pawn structure if on move three bishop b5 is played then we can play the move bishop to d7 here and after bishop takes d7 queen takes d7 d3 we can just capture this pawn if we want to get the queens off and equalize right away and this would be a perfectly fine middle game to play after rook check something like e6 is okay for black so mainly after d5 most people will capture this pawn on d5 after which knight to f6 is the best move in this position you shouldn't capture with the queen because that would just lose a tempo and here white has a few options if knight c3 would just take the pawn if bishop to b5 check then you can continue with the move bishop to d7 which is very good knight d7 is also another option it leads to a little bit more unclear position but is also okay after bishop d7 bishop takes queen takes d7 white should probably play to move pawn to c4 if he wants to hang on to the pawn if he goes for other options we'll just take the pawn back probably with our knight and continue our development from there so after the move point to c4 we play the move point to e6 so the idea of this pawn sacrifice is that we're going to get a few weakened squares in the center for our pieces like d4 and d3 here for example pawn takes is met by queen takes queen e2 and knight c6 and this knight is jumping into these squares i think black has sufficient compensation for the sacrifice material if knight f3 on move 7 then we have pawn captures knight e5 queen can you just go across to c7 and again i think this is okay for black after bishop d6 for example castles and castles black is doing okay so if on move seven after e6 queen e2 is played then we have bishop to d6 pointing to f5 to attack our pawn on e6 we can just castle here and sacrifice the pawn with what i believe is a very pleasant position for black because white is very underdeveloped for example capture captures queen takes takes takes and knight c6 here followed by again knight b4 and knight to d4 therefore on move 4 the better move i suggest for white is to go knight to f3 but then after knight takes d5 let's say bishop to b5 check is met by the bishop to d7 and this is very comfortable and after the move bishop to c4 we can just play to move pawn to e6 no need to take the pawn here on f4 that would just complicate things and there's quite a lot of tactics after even why this castle's kingside so just play to move pawn to e6 with straightforward development so now i'll look at a move which is played a lot at the lower level to intermediate and that's the move bishop to z4 this is very common because against e5 why would often bring this bishop to this diagonal but against the sicilian i don't think it's as effective because black can just block everything with the move pawn to e6 and as soon as you see the bishop hit the c4 square you should try and play against this bishop on c4 as best you possibly can so for example play might continue d3 knight to c6 knight to f3 you could play the move pawn to a6 let's say white castles you could play the move pawn to d5 here you could play the move pawn to b5 you have many options but you should keep in mind that these pawns are used to restrict this bishop on b3 and this is the main way black should be playing and approaching this type of structure so let's say knight to f6 is one way the game might continue let's say castles and here let's say the move point to a3 and black should play the move pawn to b5 again looking to play moves such as pawn to c4 and restricting this bishop from getting into the game so that's all i say on this particular opening just make sure that when you see a bishop hit the c4 square especially at a lower level make sure you play the move pawn to e6 and especially don't play the move point to e5 don't open up that bishop try to keep it shut out from the game as best you can with your pawns or better yet you could even just move your knight somewhere to just capture the bishop and remove it entirely out of the game with something like 9a5 for example would solve a lot of your problems as well okay so that's it for this one and let's move on to the next variation now we get to one of the most popular openings for white to play against the sicilian which is the grand prix attack which starts off the knight c3 knight c6 f4 g6 knight f3 bishop g7 and white has two main options here one is to go bishop c4 and the other one is to go bishop to b5 after bishop b5 i would continue either d6 or knight to d4 knight d4 is the main move but d6 castle's bishop d7 is also perfectly fine and the position after capturing here with the double pawns is also meant to be okay for black but knight d4 castles knight takes b5 knight takes b5 black can play the move pawn to d5 here which is a very strong move after the captures of course we don't capture backwards of the fork so a6 should be played knight c3 knight f6 d4 and knight takes d5 is meant to be a perfectly fine line for black here to play so instead of move 5 bishop to c4 is a lot more common and again whenever the bishop hits the c4 square grand prix is no exception you should try and keep this bishop locked out of the game unless there's some specific reason why not to that's why i suggest move pawn to e6 although another line i enjoy playing here is the move pawn to d6 and after the move d3 knight f6 castles bishop to g4 let's say white plays the move h3 we can give up this light squared bishop in this particular case because in the dragon setup the light square bishop isn't the best piece usually here we can just castle and the whole point is that we also gain a lot of time and stop our opponent from getting in this important d4 move here for example knight d7 followed by knight to d4 with a very typical plan in this position for black to continue with something along the lines of rook b8 maybe e6 maybe b5 and b4 as well as again hitting this bishop on c4 but under 5 pointer e6 is a lot more popular option here for example white has two main options one is the castle one is to play f5 right away if this then we can go 97 pawn takes we can just take back with them the f pawn the d pawn is also okay after d3 we can play the move pawn to d5 bishop b3 and there's some very interesting lines here and black can play including the move pawn to b5 i think this leads to a very unclear position for black about one which is meant to be totally fine after castles we just play to move pawn to c4 and here there are some complications which can arise after captures captures queen takes and king takes whereby as far as i believe them black will be a piece up temporarily but white will get a lot of compensation and counter play for the sacrificed material but perhaps if you want to avoid all this then just taking um with the d pawn is a lot easier and playing something say d3 just castling is very simple way of playing this position for black on move six after the move castles we can play the move knight to e7 after the move point to the three castles queen e1 is a very popular way of playing this position where white will bring this queen into the attack on h4 square and here for example we can continue with the move pawn to d5 and after the bishop drops back to b3 our plan is just to go for this bishop we have a lot of different options here there are sometimes b5 and queen b6 is an option just sacrificing the pawn to get a lot of counter play a6 is an option here to follow up with b5 and then c4 and we can also just go straight for that bishop with either knight a5 or knight d4 all of which are perfectly playable for black and should give us a comfortable position and on move eight if instead white goes for something instead of queen e1 say e5 which is also another popular way of playing this especially at a low level black should immediately hit out in the center with d5 again and after the captures we can play the move knight to f5 and recapture the pawn here on d6 with a pleasant position because if white can't play the move point to f5 then he's unable to really get this bishop of c1 square and into the attack so that's my remedy against the grand prix attack so now let's move on to the closest healing so now we move on to the closest ceiling which is one of white's most popular anti-sicilian options starting with knight c3 knight c6 g3 g6 bishop g2 bishop g7 d3 d6 and here depending on what white chooses and what setup you want to play as black i'll give you a few different options so for example the first one being with black putting the knight in f6 this might look something along the lines of f4 knight f6 knight f3 here you can just cast with the king if you want and then go with the typical queen side plan of pushing the pawns and attacking this side and maybe attacking in the center later on this is perfectly okay but you also have the extra option of playing bishop to g4 typically the light squad bishop isn't the best piece in this sort of dragon structure and trading it off for the knight f3 is something you can do especially preventing white from playing d4 for a little bit longer play might continue castle's castles rook b8 so we'll see in all of these plans black is pushing and expanding on the queen side with the move rook ba b5 b4 and trying to open up play there because there's no point playing on the king's side because that's where white is pushing their attack forward for example bishop e3 knight d4 might continue queen f2 knight d7 g4 and we can possibly continue with e6 and forward our pawn up the board later on so something like this is okay for black we can also opt for another setup involving the pawn going to e5 so let's say the knight goes to e2 instead here you could play the move pawn to e5 the advantage of this move is that it stops white from ever playing d4 but at the same time it clearly weakens this d5 square the knight f6 plane i don't like playing so much with the 92 since there's no option of bishop g4 trading off for the knight on f3 but here i've played into a very interesting plan if you want to go for a direct kingside attack after the move castles you can't even play the move pawn to h5 which i have done before on a few occasions for example here after h3 you can even play h4 and think about playing the move pawn to f5 next which is very very sharp but very interesting as well if h5 is not for you then you can just continue with knight to e7 castle the king to the king side and then maybe look at playing f5 bishop e6 or follow up with the same sort of plan that we looked in the previous positions and the last and final setup is to put the knight on g7 but with the pawn on e6 so this is a far more standard setup and if you're new and you're not sure what to choose and i would recommend this one i think this one is by far the easiest one to execute as black so for example knight to e7 knight to f3 one thing you should realize playing this is that whenever white is threatening to play d4 though you should always put the knight into the d4 square so if we allow y to transition back into an open sicilian we'll find that we have this very weak pawn on the d6 square so it's very common that you'll see this move knight to d4 being played in castles castles let's say queen d2 and again rook b8 followed by the plan of b5 b4 is very common in this type of position here because our pawn is on e6 we also have the extra options of playing f5 and or d5 if we really need to in order to blunt white's king side attack so these are my three recommendations in the closed ceiling depending on which white chooses next we'll move on to c3 allopan so now we get into the c3 or alopen which is one of the most popular anti-sicilian options for white starting with c3 here i suggest either d5 or knight f6 knight f6 being a very solid option for black but in this video i'll be mainly focusing on the move pawn to d5 after it captures queen takes knight to f3 here there are two ways to play it i'll just show you one way with knight f6 but knight c6 is the one which we'll focus on in this video but if you're gonna play knight f6 and want some sort of solid game you can do playing something like this knight c6 castles the main thing here for black is to try and just hold off from capturing on d4 as long as you possibly can because as soon as you capture you allow this knight on c3 to attack your queen so instead just keep developing your pieces wait for the move bishop e3 before you capture on d4 and after white captures back you should have time to castle and move your queen away if it's being attacked this way you get this square on d5 and this isolated queen's pawn which you can play against but we'll be focusing mainly on the move knight to c6 instead after which white has two main options so the first one is going to be knight a3 delaying d4 i suggest bishop g4 here and after the move bishop c4 then we can just trade queens and take a few pieces off the board with a better pawn structure and comfortable middle game after the move bishop to e2 black can play the move pawn to e5 here creating a sort of moroxy bind in the center at the same time stopping white from playing this pawn push we're never really afraid of knight b5 because our plan is almost always the castle the king to the queen side so that's not much of a problem there and let's say castles here we can continue with the move pawn to e4 so trading off these light squared bishops would be very beneficial for black because we see that we can take full control over this d5 square by casting our king and it's very hard for white to develop his pieces especially this bishop on c1 if he's unable to push the d pawn off the board so instead of castles let's say the move pawn to d3 is played and here we can continue with the move pawn to f6 you can also castle the king to the queen side that's perfectly okay too nothing wrong with that let's say castles if instead of castles knight c4 then we could play bishop to e6 to prevent the knight going to e3 castles knight e7 we can drop the queen back and then bring the knight to d5 to get this meroxie bind set up again we can put the bishop on e7 then decide where we want to cast with our king maybe we can go from opposite side castles or maybe we can just safely castle to the king side here and play that position as well instead if castle straight away then we can play knight to e7 let's say rook to e1 we can castle the king to the queen side and again we get a very double edged position but one where i don't feel that black should be any worse because we have full control over the center and the queen side attack for white is going to be a little bit slow whereas i feel even though we don't have any immediate targets we can definitely start our king side attack fairly easily by just pushing these pawns up the board it's a very double-edged middle game from here on so now for variation you can play here is actually also pawn takes first takes and then bishop g4 which is also totally fine but a lot of people don't play this because of the move knight c3 i think black is totally fine here as long as you know what you're doing but it can get some um very complicated lines here and they become very concrete so you need to really know what you're doing here after the move bishop takes f3 knight takes d5 bishop takes and i check king to d8 and then knight takes rook position can get very complicated here very quickly after the move bishop to h5 there are series of like forcing moves here for both sides so you really need to know what you're doing i think one of the critical moves here for white is to move pawn to d5 which you need to analyze and be familiar with but i've seen the move bishop f4 being played quite a number of times and here after the move e5 i think even one of my students has gone on this a few times after the move bishop takes e5 which is a serious blunder here for white black can finish the game off with the move bishop to b4 and checkmate so yes um this is a very dangerous line for both sides you need to know what you're doing but instead i'm going to suggest move bishop to g4 so i feel the downside of bishop g4 though is that white has this extra option of playing the move pawn takes c5 so after the move pawn takes c5 the lines again get forcing because the queens get traded off after queen takes d1 king takes d1 we should play the move pawn to e5 threatening pawn to e4 but white will get this very dangerous queen side pawn majority and you need to be able to deal with this actively position wise i think black is doing okay but you do need to play more accurately than white does a5 a couple moves here for white bishop b5 and pawn to b5 so after this one i'm suggesting we play either knight e7 or even e4 is very interesting here after e4 i looked at the line pawn to h3 castle's queen side check knight to d2 all very forcing after my pawn takes f3 we have takes takes on g2 rook g1 and here pawn takes b4 takes takes takes and rook d4 now if after a3 we have rook takes g4 and computer reckons position is unclear and equal chances for both sides it looks very very messy of course because of this poor majority but black equally has this some dangerous king side pawn majority so i'm not exactly too sure what is happening in this position but it's an option another option is to play the move knight to e7 here after which from the sample games played from this position i think black is doing okay another move on with nine is b5 after which the knight can retreat to either a7 or d8 so let's say the move knight to d8 and here with the pawns being a little bit weaker we can probably just win the c5 pawn at some point so for example here starting with knight f6 threatening maybe e4 and we get an unclear position but one where i think black is doing okay as well so instead of the move pawn takes c5 and move six there's also bishop to e2 which is a lot more common so here i suggest we just take the pawn and play e6 and after the move knight c3 we can either play queen a5 here which is totally fine to get the queen out of the way or we can play the move bishop to b4 both are fine it doesn't really matter i tend to lean more towards queen a5 but bishop b4 is also good and here most important thing is don't capture the knight and give up your bishop unnecessarily because that would just improve white's pawn structure instead we want to keep the bishop here play queen a5 and here we can follow up with say knight f6 or knight to e7 and then maybe castle with the king to the king side we have a totally fine position for black once again so this is my recommendation against the c3 cecilian and i think it's a fairly simple enough one to learn i hope you enjoyed this one and we'll move on to our next one okay so now we get into my recommendation against the smithmar again but now when it comes to the smithmario gambit after the move d4 there's a couple of options the firstly if you already play knight f6 against the alpha pin then it makes sense that if you don't want to learn something else you can just transpose back with the move knight to f6 and it's a simple way of meeting the smooth moro but if you want to take it head on just know that i don't think there's any straight up refutation of the spiffer again but at all there are variations where black can certainly equalize and get a totally fine game and these are the ones where i will be focusing on in this particular recommendation so one is the move knight to c6 and after the move knight to f3 d6 bishop c4 a6 so make sure you don't play the move knight to f6 in this position instead of a6 because that would run into a trap after the move pawn to e5 which i go in depth into in my smith mara video instead a6 bishop to f4 if instead the move h3 then we'll play a very similar way as we play with this setup except that the bishop will sort of be inside the pawn chain instead of outside but after bishop f4 which is one of my recommendations after the move knight to f6 castles bishop to g4 pawn to h3 bishop tags queen takes e6 let's say rook f to d1 so here for black i would suggest either queen b8 or queen b6 and i think this is probably close to just an equal position i don't think white's initiative is too dangerous here but at the same time i think it's playable for both sides with roughly balanced position so that's one way to play this position next one is on move four to go d6 and then e6 a6 castles knight f6 queen e2 and here i suggest we play the move pawn to b5 hitting the bishop away to b3 and then knight d7 i always felt like these knight d7 variations were black's best way to play for a win if you wanted to try and hang on to your pawn the whole way through and after move rook d1 bishop to p7 is is probably um the best option and the hardest i feel to get any advantage from the white side at the same time the position can be very sharp and can get very complicated very quickly so you should keep that in mind as well so that's it for smith tomorrow and let's move on to our next anticipation so this next move looks a little bit odd but it's actually not a bad move and it should be taken quite seriously and that's the move knight to a3 not common and something you can play to even put your opponents off guard here black has a lot of different options depending on what you play and almost all of them are totally fine um but i'm going to try and give you a simple remedy to get into a very forcing variation here the one i don't suggest you playing is the move pawn to e6 because i feel like this one is very comfortable for white especially after the move pawn to c3 knight to f6 and pointed d3 i feel like these positions white sort of gets the type of structure that he's looking for same goes with knight c6 bishop to b5 pawn to e6 and these positions after captures captures okay for black but i feel that white tend to get what um he's looking for as well and it justifies putting the knight on a3 since now he's also fighting for the c4 and d6 squares so instead we're going for something a little bit more forcing so i'm going to suggest to move knight to f6 here after the move knight to f6 white has two main options so one is going to be pawn to e5 chasing the knight away the knight goes to d5 now goes to f3 and in this position what we have is a transition back into a c3 elephant except that this knight which should normally be on b1 heading towards c3 is now on a3 which i don't think is much of an improvement for white at all for example knight c6 d4 we can just capture then i can go to the b5 square but then after e6 captures bishop check and a few trade of the pieces we can play a move such as queen b6 i think black is doing totally fine in this position we don't have any major problems on this d6 square our king is getting to safety and our pieces are very very active so i don't think transitioning back to an elephant is the right way to go for white instead d3 has been played before and here an interesting option is to play the move knight to c6 pawn goes to f4 and now we can transition back into sort of closed sicilian structures i showed you earlier by playing the move pawn to d6 g6 bishop g7 and castles this would be totally fine white would most likely go for some sort of central pawn push in the center with c3d4 and this would be just a normal game but a more forcing variation here is to instead go for the move knight c6 and after f4 playing immediately to move pawn to e5 which has been played in two lower rated games no higher rated players have played this as of yet because um there's just not many practical games being played after knight a3 but play might continue for example knight f3 here takes takes and black can hit out in the center with the move pawn to d5 and this is working just in time because the move knight to b5 here wouldn't work because black has the move queen to a5 check no time to forecast on c7 because now the knight is getting hit and if the knight retreats back then we always have to move pawn to d4 here to win the knight using the pin so after the remove pawn to d5 e5 might be expected and hit the knight can just drop back to the d7 square bishop e2 bishop e7 and black is ready to castle to the king side with what i believe to be a good version of the french since there's no pawn on e6 and this bishop on c8 is later free to develop outside this pawn chain so this is my quick remedy against knight a3 and let's move on to the next one so next we have the early bishop e5 sicilian after knight c3 knight c6 is what i recommend and bishop b5 so this is quite a popular line and one i played quite a lot when i first started learning the white side of the sicilian and i've also covered this in a previous video if you want to take a look at that here i suggest for black we play the move knight to d4 and after the move bishop to c4 from white i'm suggesting shut the bishop out immediately with the move pawn to e6 same theme which i've covered in the previous variations so after the move knight e2 or knight f3 we'll continue with knight f6 or a6 he's also fine here i just want to point out that the move e5 is often counted in the center with the move pawn to d5 after d5 knight takes d4 pawn takes d4 bishop e5 check knight d7 knight e2 and let's say black plays a move such as queen to g5 and here after for example f4 defending the e5 pawn we can continue queen takes g2 with already what looks to be a very very um strong advantage for black white can try to trap the queen with the move knight to g3 threatening maybe bishop f1 if we're not careful but here after the move queen h3 let's say b3 bishop to c5 i don't see the black queen ever getting trapped and black is just material up from what i can see so after castles a6 instead of d5 immediately which i think is a little bit too early and falls into a lot of traps just pointing that out after d5 white can just take here and then play knight takes d5 and this is something you should definitely avoid after takes takes queen h5 with a very strong attack here for example bishop e6 is met by the move rook to e1 and the threat of rook takes e6 and taking on d5 is unstoppable so that's why we play a6 in this position so now you can in fact play d5 because the line before won't work but instead i'm suggesting we go with b5 and after the move bishop back to b3 just taking this bishop on b3 and following aronian's play with the black side playing bishop to b7 and we're always countering the move e5 with a counter with b4 but before we get to e5 another option for white is bishop to g5 a game has been played here which went h6 bishop h4 d6 was played and after knight d2 bishop to e7 bishop g3 d5 was played e5 knight d7 f4 and here we can see after the move g6 d4 this knight re-routed to a grade square on the d5 to e3 and it's very hard for white to get this bishop into the game here so after the move e5 instead he aronian counted right away with pawn to b4 the best response and after captures captures captures and captures back captures and bishop takes c3 rook a4 rook g8 we can see that despite the fact that the black king is probably not going to castle anytime soon black has more than enough compensation with these bishop pairs and open lines of attack on the king side this is very um clear that black has a lot of pressure here for example after bishop f4 we have queen f6 bishop g3 and here bishop takes f3 was played and pawn takes and we can see that now the position is transformed a little bit and white has this very ugly pawns on the king side so black definitely has more than enough compensation now and iranian went on to win a nice game okay so lastly we'll get into some tricky move order variations for white after the move knight c3 knight c6 knight f3 or knight e2 is one way you can play as white to trick your opponent into a sicilian which they wouldn't otherwise normally play for example here a very natural move is to play the move pawn to g6 but white might not want to go into an anti-sicilian but instead transpose back into a open sicilian but if you don't play a dragon normally from the black side and let's say you play a knight or fish version schwerznerkoff then this wouldn't make any sense for you going into an unknown opening so instead on move three if you get into this position as black and we we can't get into a position that we're familiar with then instead we should just go for the move pawn to e5 and stop white from playing d4 entirely after the move bishop to c4 here the good thing for white is that this bishop is on a clearly good diagonal so we need to be careful of this d5 square and this bishop on c4 throughout this whole variation but it's known to be fine and very solid for black after bishop b7 pawn to d3 one goes to d6 and here white has a couple of different options but mainly um white will try and maneuver this knight into the d5 square so one of the main lines is knight to d2 here preparing knight to f1 knight e3 and knight to d5 and then f6 from black and after the move knight to f1 two main moves here which i would suggest so the main line is bishop to g4 and here for example after f3 or even queen d2 is an option here i would suggest we play the move knight to d7 and fight for this d5 square by perhaps chasing this bishop away and dropping the bishop back to this e6 square when we need to also another option is to play the move knight to d7 which has been played by magnus carlsen on a number of different occasions so one occasion um white played knight to d5 and after the move knight to b6 knight takes a takes magnus got these double pawns on the on the queen side but the position is still totally fine one of the main things for black here is to try and trade off this bishop by going bishop g5 at some point in order to fight for the d5 square so try and trade off as many possible pieces as you can in order to gain control of this square and eventually if you can push the pawn to d5 and negate this weak square entirely that would be ideal as well for example c3 play continued castles knight e3 followed by bishop to g5 here and next some black will play the move bishop to e6 if instead of knight d5 knight e3 is played then much of the same thing applies so again we can play the move knight to b6 here followed by bishop g5 and bishop to e6 and castles again fighting for this d5 square and just keeping this under control so is my recommendation against this sort of move order trick i think black has a solid position and everything should be fine although it may be a little bit more difficult to win because i feel that white has a very slight edge in a lot of these positions so that covers all my recommendations in the anti-sicilians so if there's something i was unclear about do let me know or if there's something i missed out and you wanted me to cover also let me know in the comments down below otherwise i hope you enjoyed the video learn something from it and take care i'll see you on the next [Music] video you

Channel: Molton

Views: 8,134

Keywords: anti sicilian defense, anti sicilian, Sicilian Opening, moulthun ly chess, grandmaster repertoire sicilian, molton chess

Id: woPmPdPjMv8

Length: 56min 41sec (3401 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/bitz12]

Absolutely love Moltons content

[u/billratio]

Molton is my favorite

[u/trevpr1]

Surely the best anti Sicilian is 1.d4?