Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Sicilian busted?

About 30 years ago, FM Albert Chow told me that the Sicilian Defense was unsound, and that it was a matter of time before it was refuted. I laughed. He insisted that he was serious: while White's 1.e4 is an eminently logical move, 1...c5 was a silly move that does nothing for Black's development. Chow said that I had contributed to the ultimate refutation of the Sicilian with my win over David Sprenkle. I shook my head in disbelief. How could the venerable Sicilian, beloved by great players by Fischer and Kasparov, ever be busted?

Marc Esserman's book Mayhem in the Morra! features a newspaper headline on its cover: "Sicilian Refuted! Morphy and the Romantics Run Wild!" While I'm sure Esserman would admit that this is hyperbole intended to be funny and sell more books, he makes a much stronger case for the Smith-Morra Gambit than I could have imagined. As the following game illustrates, declining the gambit with 3...Nf6 (transposing to the Alapin Sicilian) is not a panacea. Was Albert right?
Black's resignation was premature, particularly given that this was a blitz game. The variation given at the end is Houdini 3's analysis of what might have happened.

2 comments:

whysoserious said...

Please don't make yourself look foolish by publishing internet games with horrible resistance on the part of your opponents and then awkwardly trying to initiate some sort of theoretical discussion. " As the following game illustrates, declining the gambit with 3...Nf6 (transposing to the Alapin Sicilian) is not a panacea"; no doubt declining is not a panacea because to say your opponent played terribly is an understatement

Frederick Rhine said...

Why so serious?