A Bust to the Sicilian Defense

In my opinion the Sicilian Defense is busted. It loses by force.

The opening move of the Sicilian Defense violates just about every opening principle. It fails to develop a piece, fails to put a pawn in the center, and fails to open up a bishop for development. It allows white to immediately open up the center and to do so with greater development. The Sicilian Defense has nevertheless remained popular despite all of this for one reason and one reason only; in order for white to open up the center it comes at the cost of having to trade its D pawn for black's C pawn. This is why the ideal response to the Sicilian is the Alapin Variation 2. C3! It says to black no you can't have my center pawn. Now white is ahead in both development and control of the center , and black has absolutely no compensation.

You don't believe me? Look at the game explorer then. I have played 581  games here on chess.com using the Alapin. I have won 68% lost 26% and drawn the other 6%. That is a score of 71%. No other opening is capable of scoring 71%. But to prove all this let's look at some games. First, we have a 3 minute no increment blitz game I played. Look at the massive advantage white immediately gets both in piece development and in center control. Both are problems which stem from black's first move.

Here's another 3 minute no increment blitz game I played. Notice how easy white's development is and how black's position is already completely unplayable by move 10.

Finally, I'm sure you want to see a master level game so here we have Deep Blue vs. Kasparov (1996). For a little historical context this was the first match between them and Kasparov annihilated Deep Blue +3 -1=2. Deep Blue's lone victory came as you might guess playing the Alapin Variation. Kasparov faced a horrible position straight out of the opening and Deep Blue wasted no time converting it. Notice that the most powerful chess player of all time got destroyed playing against a computer much weaker than him.

After 2. C3 black is in my opinion lost. White refuses to allow black to exchange its c pawn for white's d pawn giving black no compensation for white's lead in development and center control, which ultimately always proves decisive in the end. 

I'd like to close by saying that of course black can always play differently than in the games shown, in which case he merely loses differently.

I have given my opinion. I would now like to open the discussion up to all chess.com members. What are your thoughts? Is the Alapin a refutation of the Sicilian Defense?

The August 2018 issue of Chess lists the top twenty openings compiled from a list of 2415 May games where both players were rated over 2400 Elo. One can not take position on this list too seriously because it is greatly influenced by how the openings are grouped. For example, all the Retis are grouped together, while English is separated into 1...c5, 1...e5, etc. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, some of the list entries are: 181 Retis, 104 declined Queen's Gambits, 97 King's Indians, 95 Caro-Kanns, 89 Berlin Lopezes, 79 Nimzo-Indians, 70 Najdorf Sicilians, 68 Slavs, 65 1...e5 Englishes, 55 Catalans, 53 Petroffes, 47 2 Nf3 sideline Sicilians, 47 2 Nf3 d6 sideline Sicilians, 43 1...c5 Englishes, 42 1...e6 Englishes, 42 1...Nf6 Englishes, 42 Giuoco Pianos, and 42 Classical Gruenfelds.

Attempted index subsequently added:

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 a6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=42

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=47

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=73

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.cxd4 d5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=2

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=11

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=12

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=22

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=27

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.cxd4 Be7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=6

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.cxd4 Qc7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=24

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 d5 4.exd5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=9

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=10

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=22

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=58

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=59

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=60

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=61

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=62

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e6 3.d4 d5 4.e5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=61

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=63

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=68

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=11

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=13

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=18

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=21

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=27

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=37

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=50

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=51

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=55

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=56

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=57

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=61

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=66

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2 e6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=2

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=21

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=22

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=23

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=24

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=25

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=72

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=74

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=75

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=76

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 e6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=9

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=10

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=15

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=24

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=25

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=51

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=73

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=74

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 e6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=32

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=38

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=41

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=42

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 g6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=2

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=17

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=24

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=25

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=39

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 e5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=25

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=26

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=32

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=33

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=74

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=75

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Be3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=41

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.dxc5 Qxc5 6.Na3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=10

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.dxc5 Qxd1

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=10

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=14

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=15

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=16

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=34

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=75

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.Nf3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=64

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=66

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Nf6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=41

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.d4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=59

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=2

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=9

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=7

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=28

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=29

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=41

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bc4 e6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=8

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=10

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bc4 dxe5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=28

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=29

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=32

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=33

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=34

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=35

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=37

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=38

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 e6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=74

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=76

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nf3 d6 6.cxd4 Nc6 7.exd6 Qxd6 https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=22

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=23

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.Bc4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=34

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Na3 g6

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=3

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=53

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=60

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=66

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=75

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.c4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=11

1.e4 c5 2.c3 e5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=54

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=55

1.e4 c5 2.c3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.cxd4

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=37

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=51

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Qa5

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=19

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=20

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=35

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=36

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=40

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=48

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=52

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/a-bust-to-the-sicilian-defense?page=59

So what’s your opinion of the Alapin? 

The Alapin moves a Pawn instead of a piece, preempts the best square that the b1-Knight had available, makes the c1-Bishop less valuable, and weakens d3 and the light squares generally.

Look at the second blitz game. Not only are the light squares not weak,but whites domination of the light squares is what wins the game. The pawn never stays on c3. It always takes on d4, so the knight will be able to develop unimpeded. Also there’s no pawn on d3 so weakening d3 isn’t an issue.

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5, black is fine. If 2. c3 busted the Sicilian, everyone would play it and there would be no more masters playing the Sicilian.

Excellent post !!  

If you meet the Alapin you can just play 2...d4. If: 3 exd4 then 3... Qxd4 and white can't play Nc3 because of the pawn at c3.

Just look at statistics from master games - it's roughly equal for white and black.

In the game with pawnattacker, black has 4... d5. Why is it a "hard to find good move"? The idea of e6 is to follow with d5. Then the game can transpose into French advance if while plays e5 at some point. In some lines after pawn trades black will have an IQP, which creates a dynamic position with chances for both sides. Black is not lost by any means.

no he busted it learn sth new

Pack it up guys, we finally found a refutation to the Sicilian. Thank you OP for enlightening us all with your amazing discovery. 2. c2!!! How is black going to counter this novelty?!

@1e41-0 username checks out

2. c3, double exclam. Black is short on legal moves.

In my opinion the starting position is busted. It loses by force.

The starting position of chess violates just about every opening principle. It fails to develop a piece, fails to put a pawn in the center, and fails to open up a bishop for development. It allows black to immediately strike in the center and to develop his knights.

Nice sarcasm !!

Thank you! I put a lot of hard work and thought into my analysis. I'm glad you appreciated it and are open to new ideas!

I've destroyed  many many  players rated 1900-2000 using the Alapin. These experts fail to equalize against the Alapin just like the beginning players . Look at game #2 in my original post. He is rated 1928, but his position is completely lost by move 10. 

Here's another 3 minute no increment blitz game against a very strong player. Notice how easy and natural white's development is while black struggles to find any good developing moves. Black's problem stems from his very first move which accomplished nothing.

Yes weak players struggle against the Alapin, but strong players struggle against it to because with best play in my opinion black loses to the Alapin.

Just look at the statistics from my games. out of 581 games White wins 68 % black wins 26% and there is a draw 6%. That is a score of 71%. No other opening is capable of scoring 71%.