The Closed Sicilian—Introduction

The Exeter Chess Club has at least two good resources on the Closed Sicilian: Traditional Closed Sicilian and The Closed Sicilian: An Exeter Chess Club booklet. While I have no complaints about the former, the latter has what I consider to be nigh-useless ASCII diagrams. So, I thought I would reproduce Chris Bellers's booklet here, in serial post fashion, with new diagrams.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Closed Sicilian with 6…e5 7. Nh3
• Holland-Whiteley, 1995
• Crickmore-Bellers 1983
• Variation with 6…e5 7. Nh3 exf4
• Variation with 6…e5 7. Nf3
• Further examples for study:
• White cannot castle Queen's-side into Black's counterplay
• Jackson - Regis, Plymouth-Exeter, 1993
• White's f4 may block squares for the Knight and dark-squared bishop
• Smyslov - Botvinnik, Moscow, 1954
• The Closed Sicilian as a system against the English Opening
• Psakhis - Kasparov, 1990
• The Grand Prix attack with Bc4
• Hodgson - Ady, Streatham Vs Ymca, London, 1981[B23]
• The Grand Prix attack with Bb5
• Hebden - Large, British Ch'p, 1982[B21]

Introduction

1. as a model of how to approach attacking positions with a closed centre; compare many lines of the King’s Indian Attack and Ruy Lopez;
2. as a common system (e4 with Bg2) in many openings—for example,
   we see the same approach at work in many lines of the English Opening.

Basically, White aims to concentrate enough firepower in the K-side to force a quick checkmate. In doing so, Black has a natural counterattack in …Rb8, …b7-b5-b4 and possibly also …c5-c4. There are many ways for White to play the position—for example, the dark-squared Bc1 could go to g5, e3 or even d2. The Ng1 could go to e2, f3 or h3. It is also possible to put the light-squared bishop somewhere on the other diagonal—c4 or b5—as well as on g2. I will concentrate on one important line where the central bloackade is most obvious (Black plays …e5), but I also include an example of games with the bishop on each of these two alternative squares c4 (Hodgson-Ady) and b5 (Hebden-Large), in variations of the Grand Prix Attack.

Black also has a wide variety of choices. Fianchettoing the Bf8 is not necessarily the best way to play—even if it is played, Black could play e6 or e5, with the Ng8 going to e7 or f6.

Source—The Closed Sicilian: An Exeter Chess Club booklet. Chris Bellers, 1995