Sicilian Defense

The Sicilian Defense is a chess move by Black of its Queen's bishop's pawn forward by two spaces ("c5"), typically in response to a White opening of "e4" (King's pawn moved forward by two spaces).

The Sicilian Defense is so successful that its lowers the "e4" opening by white to a rank of #2 behind "d4" in terms of the most successful White openings.

Be careful in using the Sicilian Defense to protect against a quick attack by White. As a bit of a flanking maneuver, the Sicilian Defense is an aggressive long-term strategy which has some short-term vulnerabilities.

## Contents

* 1 Statistical Outcomes
* 2 White Response to Sicilian Defense
* 3 Dragon Variation
* 3.1 Famous games playing the Dragon Variation
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Statistical Outcomes[edit]

White Wins - 37.4%
Draw - 29.7%
Black Wins - 33% (remarkably high)

## White Response to Sicilian Defense[edit]

The most common White response is 2.Nf3, or (less common) 2.Nc3.[1]

Another response is the Smith-Morra Gambit:[2]

1\. e4 c5
2.d4 exd4
3.c3 dxc3
4.Nxc3

## Dragon Variation[edit]

An effective variation on the Sicilian Defense is the Dragon Variation, which usually culminates in a fianchetto by Black on g7 subsequent to the following:

1\. e4 c5
2\. Nf3 d6
3\. d4 cxd4
4\. Nxd4 Nf6
5\. Nc3 g6

### Famous games playing the Dragon Variation[edit]

These famous games using the Dragon Variation are available online:[3]

* Y. Gusev vs Averbakh, 1951

* Bronstein vs Tal, 1982

* Adams vs Shirov, 1991

* Kasimdzhanov vs Kramnik, 1999

## See also[edit]

* Silician defense explained in detail

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.masterclass.com/articles/chess-101-what-is-the-sicilian-defense-learn-how-to-perform-and-defend-against-the-chess-opening-with-a-step-by-step-guide#what-is-the-sicilian-defense
2. ↑ https://www.thechesswebsite.com/smith-morra-gambit/
3. ↑ https://www.thechesswebsite.com/sicilian-dragon-variation/