Alapin SicilianB22
2.c3 has one idea and it is not subtle — build the pawn on d4 and support it with a pawn rather than a piece, so that …cxd4 is met by cxd4 and White keeps a classical centre. The cost is a tempo and the c3-square, which is where the queen's knight would rather be. Black has two serious answers, and you have to know both: 2…Nf6 provokes 3.e5 and then chases the pawn there, and 2…d5 forces matters at once and leads to positions with an isolated queen's pawn where White's pieces come out faster. Almost everything else transposes to one of the two. What you get for learning this rather than the Open Sicilian is a structure you already understand from the Queen's Gambit, against an opponent who has prepared something else entirely.
Played by
- Evgeny Sveshnikov — the Alapin's great advocate, who wrote the definitive book on 2.c3 and played it against everyone
- Sergei Tiviakov — played 2.c3 in hundreds of games and kept it respectable at the top of the rating list
Model game
Deep Blue – Kasparov, Philadelphia match 1996
Next: e4 — yours
