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Sicilian (B50)
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6

Number of games in database: 8379
Years covered: 1840 to 2025
Overall record:
   White wins 37.7%
   Black wins 32.9%
   Draws 29.3%

Popularity graph, by decade

Explore this opening  |  Search for sacrifices in this opening.
PRACTITIONERS
With the White Pieces With the Black Pieces
Levon Aronian  47 games
Vadim Zvjaginsev  41 games
Michele Godena  33 games
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave  26 games
Ian Nepomniachtchi  25 games
Lubomir Ftacnik  25 games
NOTABLE GAMES [what is this?]
White Wins Black Wins
H Buckle vs NN, 1840
Suetin vs P Travnicek, 1975
P Michel vs J Traian Iliesco, 1943
Tal vs Fischer, 1970
Areshchenko vs Sutovsky, 2005
Kasimdzhanov vs Anand, 2005
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 page 1 of 336; games 1-25 of 8,379 
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. H Buckle vs NN 1-0101840LondonB50 Sicilian
2. W Von Holzhausen vs L Steiner  1-0581926DresdenB50 Sicilian
3. Lasker vs D Polland 1-0341928Clock simul, 10bB50 Sicilian
4. Alekhine vs W F Wertheim 0-1251933Simul, 50bB50 Sicilian
5. A Nimzowitsch vs Bogoljubov ½-½331934ZuerichB50 Sicilian
6. S von Freymann vs Lisitsin  ½-½591934USSR Championship 1934/35B50 Sicilian
7. Z von Balla vs E Steiner  ½-½201935TatatovarosB50 Sicilian
8. S Kreznar vs Fine 0-149193536th ACF Congress. Prelim AB50 Sicilian
9. T Tylor vs Fine 0-1431935Hastings 1935/36B50 Sicilian
10. C G Butcher vs W Winter  0-1331936British ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
11. A Becker vs E Lundin  1-0371936non-FIDE Munich OlympiadB50 Sicilian
12. Alekhine vs A Begam 1-0421936Simul, 40bB50 Sicilian
13. Keres vs J Turn  1-0401936Tallinn ttB50 Sicilian
14. B Petkevich vs Gilg  0-1221937Kautsky MemorialB50 Sicilian
15. A Becker vs Gilg  ½-½151937Teplitz-SchoenauB50 Sicilian
16. P Saidkhanov vs A Kots  0-1231937Match Moscow v UzbekistanB50 Sicilian
17. A Ilyin-Zhenevsky vs I Kan  ½-½671937USSR ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
18. Keres vs I Dyner 1-0281937OstendB50 Sicilian
19. Ragozin vs Lisitsin  1-0881937USSR ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
20. K Richter vs J Pelikan  1-0321937Bad ElsterB50 Sicilian
21. S Zawadzki vs H Friedmann  1-0371937Polish ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
22. A Ilyin-Zhenevsky vs A Konstantinopolsky ½-½301937USSR ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
23. A Ilyin-Zhenevsky vs Lisitsin  0-1511937USSR ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
24. K Richter vs W Ernst  ½-½421937Bad SaarowB50 Sicilian
25. R Blow vs F Parr  1-0351937British ChampionshipB50 Sicilian
 page 1 of 336; games 1-25 of 8,379 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Nov-10-04  Dudley: I'm not sure what you were looking at in Opening Explorer that was so good for White but imo the white KB belongs on g2 not c4 in the true Closed Sicilian. I guess I was looking at 2.Bc4 games, but with Nf3 as a second move I suppose the most common move for black is ...d6, which makes it harder to play the lines I mentioned above. It doesn't bother me because my 2nd move for black is ...Nc6, leaving my d and e pawns uncommited.
Nov-10-04  Dudley: Some of the things in my previous post were assuming a 2nd move for black of 2...Nc6. In the opening explorer, 3.Bc4 is much more effective vs. 2...d6 than it is vs. 2...Nc6. This is one of the problems playing the Sicilian in average ranking sections. You hardly ever get to play your favorite line and run into off beat lines like this one. My main line is the accelerated dragon- I got hooked on that courtesy of Jeremy Silman.
Nov-10-04  e4Newman: Opening Explorer is the Opening Explorer page that concerned me. While stats can be a bit misleading, they look pretty good for white.
Nov-10-04  e4Newman: Thanks <Dudley>. I've been discussing this with some others and they also pointed out that OTB I missed the N retreat to d7. I think white's KB can easily be harassed, so I'm not sure I'd play this as black. It was fun to try to deal with on the spot - now I'm prepared. I have seen many uncommon lines used against me, you simply have to switch gears away from modern theory and book lines as you pointed out.

And kudos to Silman, his books have helped a lot - especially the ones that focus on rationalizing positions and tactics, kinda like the old Ruben Fine chess openings book.

Jan-08-05  dickweed: On the whole I find it rather strange that there isn't more games & theory covering 3) Bc4. The minimum experience I have against it as black suggests that 3..e6 is a bit too passive for my taste, I've always avoided playing 3..Nf6 in view of e5 but after <Dudley>'s suggestion of the Nd7 retreat I might start experimenting with it. Would be fun if more ppl could comment on this position
Jan-08-05  dickweed: Also, <Dudley> are you comfortable playing against the "Marakovsky" (pardon my spelling) bind in the Accelarated? That's what makes me hesitate about using the accelarated
Jan-08-05  refutor: <e4newman> look a little deeper in the opening explorer...why not just play the dragon v. 3.Bc4 Opening Explorer

also after 4.e5 dxe5 5.Nxe5 e6 what's the big deal?

Feb-20-05  erikofthesouth: I've played an opening several times, and don't know if it's been played in a grandmaster game... it may be something I just made up. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4
Is this a real opening? Help me out here, if you will... just for kicks, here's a blitz game I played against a 1600 once. I was white. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.e5 dxe5 5.Nxe5 Nbd7??? 6.Bxf7#
Feb-20-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sneaky: Erik, Bc4 is a great square for the bishop, but usually GM's play d4 first and later decide where to place the bishop. However, this does not mean that delaying d4 is necessarily bad, the Opening Explorer shows hundreds of games that follow these lines. In most of them I imagine that d4 is played in short order, thereby transposing back into a normal Sicilian.
Feb-20-05  azaris: I've bit the bullet and tried to play Sicilian recently. Of course you can guess that 3. Bc4 then crops up with some regularity. The result is invariably something like this:

[White "canada1"]
[Black "azaris"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.a3 a6 6.d3 Nc6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.Ba2 Ne8

(My idea to reduce tension by exchanging bishops.)

10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Qd2 h6 12.Ne2 Nc7 13.b4 Rd8 14.Ng3 b6 15.c3 d5 16.e5 d4 17.bxc5 bxc5 18.c4 Rb8 19.Rab1 Bd7 20.Ne4 Ne8

(Annoying traffic jam that gives Black no counterplay.)

21.Qf4 f6

(Looks ugly but what else is there to do?)

22.exf6 Nxf6 23.Nxf6+ Qxf6 24.Qxf6 gxf6 25.h3 e5 26.g4 f5

(This whole plan must be faulty for White. Unfortunately I don't find the correct way to refute it.)

27.Nh2 fxg4 28.Nxg4 Bxg4 29.hxg4 Kg7 30.Kg2 Rxb1 31.Rxb1 Rb8 32.Rxb8 Nxb8

(I was thinking the bishop would not be good but underestimated the white king's influence on the light squares.)

33.Kf3 Kf6 34.Ke4 Ke6 35. Bb3 Nd7 36.Ba4 Nf6+ 37.Kf3 Nh7

(Fishing for 38. Ke4?? Ng5#)

38.Bc6 (Rats!) Nf6 (White could have played on but I think it's holdable.) 1/2-1/2

I don't usually mind playing in closed positions, but this one was a bit too laggish for even my tastes. Any ideas on how to liven up the Closed Sicilian?

Feb-20-05  Dudley: Yes<dickweed> the dreaded Maroczy Bind is the theoretical flaw of the Accelerated Dragon but there are a few good ways to play against it. Anyway it takes a good, patient positional player to really take advantage of it for White-rare at my level. Playing it by rote just because you heard it's the theoretical refutation isn't going to cut it against someone who knows it better from the Black side.
Jul-19-05  get Reti: Is there any way to get the pawn back after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Be2 Nc6 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nxe4?
Jul-19-05  buRnINGbeNd: <get Reti> If you're playing c3 that early, I would suggest essaying the Kopec system with 4.Bd3. I personally prefer open Sicilians as both white and black, but have found the Kopec (with either 3.Bd3 4.c3 or vice versa) to be the toughest Anti-Sicilian to play against.
Nov-09-05  stevechess: Has anyone come across 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 lately, I find it almost never comes up!
Nov-09-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  WannaBe: <stevechess> You can use the opening explorer to search the database here.

Opening Explorer Quite a few games in 2005 too...

Feb-21-06  EmperorAtahualpa: I'm looking for games in which the Smith-Morra gambit is played (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3):

Opening Explorer

The games I can find in this database with this opening are not really satisfying...Can anyone help me out please? Thanks!

May-25-06  DeepBlade: Whew, Sicilians are too much for me...

[White "DeepBlade"]
[Black "NN"]
[BlackElo "1644"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Event "InstantChess"]

Closed endgame position, so I walk the King
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4
cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6
6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 Nxd4
9.Bxd4 O-O 10.O-O-O Be6 11.Kb1
Qa5 12.Nd5 Qxd2 13.Nxe7+ Kh8
14.Rxd2 Rfe8 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nd5
Bd8 17.Rd4 Ba5 18.Bd3 Bxd5
19.Rxd5 Bc7 20.f4 Re6 21.g4 Rae8
22.h4 Kg8 23.h5 a6 24.g5 b5
25.Kc1 Rc8 26.c3 Bb6 27.Kd2 Bc5
28.Ke2 Rc6 29.Kf3 Kf8 30.c4
bxc4 31.Bxc4 a5 32.b3 Kg8
33.e5 Bb4 34.a3 Bc5 35.Kg4
Bxa3 36.Rxa5 Bb4 37.Ra8+ Kg7
38.h6# 1-0

This one looks like a wrestling match! Rush to mate.
[White "DeepBlade"]
[Black "NN"]
[BlackElo "1655"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Event "InstantChess"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4
cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6
6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bxd7+ Qxd7 8.Bg5
Bg7 9.f4 O-O 10.h4 h5 11.Qd2
Nc6 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Bxf6
Bxf6 14.e5 Bg7 15.O-O-O Rab8
16.Rdf1 d5 17.f5 Qb7 18.b3 Bxe5
19.fxg6 Qb4 20.gxf7+ Rxf7
21.Qg5+ Kf8 22.Qxe5 Qa3+ 23.Kb1
Rb5 24.Qh8# 1-0

Jun-30-06  blingice: <e4Newman> Yeah, I see 3. Bc4 a lot on FICS. Probably 4 out of 7 games when I play 2..d6.
Aug-02-06  gambitfan: I also often meet with 3 Bc4...

Right now in a current internet game...

Seems quite easy to ply for Black, doesn't it ?

Aug-02-06  gambitfan: You can see there : A Timofeev vs Kasparov, 2004 how Kasparov deals with 3 Bc4 as Black...

the "best" line : 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Nc6 5. c3 g6 6. O-O Bg7 ...

Oct-25-09  timhortons:


click for larger view

i was looking for the best possible continuation for the 8th move of my game at gameknot.com.

choices offered by chessgames.com database

8.Bd3 it has 2 game in the database on it, all on lossing side for white

http://www.chessgames.com//perl/exp...?

heres the two game

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

rybka dont even entertain our database 8th move.


click for larger view

1. = (0.05): 1.Nc3 0-0 2.Be3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bd7 4.0-0 Be8 5.Rc1 Qd6 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Qd2 Rad8 8.f3 2. = (0.05): 1.Be3 Nc6 2.Nc3 0-0 3.Bb5 Bd7 4.0-0 Be8 5.Rc1 Qd6 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Qd2 Rad8 8.f3 3. = (0.04): 1.Bb5+ Bd7 2.Be2 Nc6 3.Nc3 0-0 4.0-0 Rc8 5.Be3 Be8 6.Rc1 Nd5 7.Nd3 Nxe3 8.fxe3 Bg5 9.Rf3 f5

(, 25.10.2009)

on my part, i prefer the 8.Bb5 variation for the 8th move, if he push hes bishop on d6 ill take it with my knight, if he cover the king with knight on c6, ill maintain the pin, but ill rescue my bishop if provoke to save my bishop pair, i had 4 games now on these, 3 are in mid game.

Oct-25-09  timhortons: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...(B50)+as+White+

the delayed alapin of gm adams is so cool, he played all the strongest master with it,hes stickin the bishop on e2.unlike on the variation i played where the pawn is pushed to e5 provoking and exchanged, as i go over rybka the position is equal. i still need to buy a book on alpin, at least the one that discusses its many variation.

Jul-21-10  WhiteRook48: against the Sicilian i usually play 3 Bc4 to throw my opponents off psychologically...
Jul-21-10  WhiteRook48: almost won too... except i got stuck in a position where I made a stupid mistake leading to a skewer
Aug-09-10  WhiteRook48: interesting line: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d3 e6 5 c3 Nc6 6 a4?! Na5 7 Ba2?! Qb6 8 b4?! cxb4 9 Be3!? where black wishing to avoid loss of tempo tries
9...b3?!? 10 Bxb6 b2?!? 11 Nbd2 bxa1=Q 12 Qxa1 axb6
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