Plan of action in the Sicilian

Hi All,

I like to play the Sicilian Defence and seem to get fairly good results with it. My win percentage with it is about 52% (as black) and my best win was with the this defence. I use it in Live Chess too. However I often find it hard to come up with a plan after the opening moves are made. Here I have included a few moves that are quite common, or at least at my level and I have left it roughly at the point in the game where I get stuck. Are there any main objectives with the Sicilian (particularly the Dragon)? I know this question may well be too broad and that different variations all aim for different positions and plans. Once I get to this point in the game. Could anyone give me any advice on certain plans to go for once this position (or similar) occurs.

Because I am a tactical person, I would look to pin the knight to the queen. Then advance the queen knight to attack the pinned knight. Of course white gets to move so the plan may take longer to execute.

what if white plays h3 after pinning the knight, if you take the knight, and then Queen takes Knight, you've lost a tempo haven't you?

...a6 with the plan of ...b5.

The idea is to create tension or pawn weaknesses. Lets say after h3. Bxf3 Qxf3 Then Ne5 forking the Queen and Bishop. Queen has to move. Then Nxc4 dxc4. you have created a weakness by making a double pawn. White loses the tempo because the white queen has no attack. But I am tactically minded person so i am constantly using tactics. A positionally minded person may play differently

Yes I often try a6...b5. I sometimes feel that the fianchettoed bishop doesn't get involved enough or is traded off somehow before it's reached it's potential.

I think the idea behind the Sicilian is to create a fort of sorts.

I usually use a similar strategy to that, except I put the e pawn (it would be a d pawn for white) into the 5th rank. After that, you can move your rook back and forth and thus force your enemy to test you for weaknesses. One problem I have with the sicilian opening is how difficult it is to use all of my bishops when I use it.

The light squared bishop is usually passive from black's point of view, so trading that bishop for white's active bishop is usually good.

Well that game you showed us isn't even a dragon, or an open sicilian for that matter.  It is a dragon like set-up though with the bishop on g7, which does look quite strong in that closed game. I have played similar positions as black and I usually expand on the queenside with moves like a6, b5, Rb8 etc. The light squared bishop doesn't seem to have a good role but perhaps could be useful on b7, after the queenside expansion. Pinning and g4 knight looks good too, maybe followed by Ne5. I think black doesn't have much to worry about in that type of position. Just my opinion though.

The Sicilian Dragon can be extremely dangerous for Black. The Yugoslav Attack has posed a big problem for a lot of Dragon players, and even Bobby Fischer didn't rate the defense highly.

My favorite variation is the Kalashnikov, but I don't often get a chance to play it. It's pretty dynamic and offers good counterplay.

Does anyone else have any other favourite Sicilian variations and reasons or thinking behind them?

Once the light-squared bishop goes to c4, it's usually a good idea to play for d5 if at all possible.  Here, since white hasn't played d4 cxd4 Nxd4, that plan has a higher chance of working out.

One of the ideas in the Sicilian is to open the c file for the a8 Rook. Since White did not play the usual d4 then that is out. I do not like 8...Re8 at this time. Why not play 8...h6 and put the question to White's dark squared Bishop? A trade of White's dark squared Bishop for a Knight is not so bad with Black's dark squared Bishop controlling the beautiful h8-a1 diagonal. Black is somewhat cramped so should play for a trade or two. However, I would play 8...Na5 attacking the light squared Bishop. Before you all say a Knight on the rim is grime or dim look at it. if 9 Bd5 e6 attacks the Bishop again. If 9Bb5 a6 attacks the Bishop and is a move Black would want to make at some point anyway. If 9 Bb3 Nxb3 is fine doubling Whites pawns. If White leaves the Bishop where it is then 9...Nxc4 again doubling White's pawns.

i think the beauty of the sicilian is that it can be whatever you want it to be for black, whereas white seems to constantly respond to threats/attacks.

I would have to say, what is the purpose of each of the moves for black?

ie c5 and d6 both try to control dark squares  (c5 - b4 and d4 and d6 - c5 and e5)

the knight helps attack b4, d4, e5 and a5

again the bishop is to control the a1-h8 diagonal.

so now comes a point when you have to decide what type of game you want to play.  you could try eliminating one of their bishops (generally by trading a knight for one).  ie do you want to slowly take hold of the game?  or do you want to aggressively play.  instead of Re8, you could quietly move your pieces.

ie Kh8, with ideas of Nd7 and Nde5 and leave your rook on f8

you could also play more aggressively as was suggested earlier with ideas of Bg4, BxN, Ne5

the a6 b5 idea also is good, but it becomes more dangerous w/ the rook on e8, because then white can think of doing a knight sac for two pawns and the bishop ends up on b5

alot depends on your style.  if you like kings Indian, you could even transpose to that by moving the king, Ne8 and f5.  then it becomes similar to KID w/c5 which is trying to entice white to give up the center.

It is no problem to black. I think that...