Why is nextchessmove.com suggesting this: Sicilian Defense

Hello to everyone from Roosendaal, The Netherlands,

I am a beginning chess player. Players around 1200-1250 (my level) open about 70% of the games with e4. I always respond with c5. ( I like to learn these lines)

Oke, now white players at my level play very often bishop c4

Nextchessmove.com suggests e6. Good i understand i have to protect my f7 square from wihite bishop.

Now white plays  knight f3 very often

Now we've reached the point (at move 3 already :) ) where I dont understand the choice of nextchessmove.com

It suggest Knight g6 for me ..................and now see what happens when white attacks my knight at f6

Nextchessmove suggests not to move my knight, but to attack white's bishop

After a few moves you'll get a position like this, which is an advantage for white in my opinion

- My King is not very safe

- My pawn structure is weak

- Soon I'll loose one of my double pawns

Can somebody tell me why the computer suggests these moves for black? (started already at move 2)

Thanks a lot,

VeeDeeVee

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Looks good to me.

You've already figured out what you're going to be doing with your central pawns, you've got clear lines for development, and your pawns control the lion's share of the center of the board.

What's the hubbub?

While you correctly asses the final position for the disadvantages black has, you seem not to see the advantages black has:

For instance the pair of bishops (place the other bishop on b7 or c6 and you get the idea: The Rg8 and the Bb7 (or instead of b7 it can stand on Bc6) --> both aim at the g2-pawn, and that is certainly not so comfortable for white. 

Blacks King is not less safe than the white king. To break the black position, white would need the f-pawn go f2-f4-f5, but for the moment it is blocked by the white knight on f3, which might have trouble leaving this square as then the white position of the king might really get vulnerable.

If the plan f2-f4-f5xe6 is difficult to get in --> it is even tougher to do d2-d4-d5xe6, because there is the black pawn on c4. If d2-d4 the black pawn takes c4xd3 e.p.

Blacks "weak" double pawn is not a "real double pawn". How would you like to get your white Bishop sitting on c1 into play. You need to move the b-pawn or the d-pawn, after which black can take either with

c4xd3 (or c4xd3 e.p. in case white does d2-d4), or c4xb3 (or c4xb3 e.p.).

  You see? It is not a double pawn for long.

But black has a real weakness: the pawn h7.

If you play black, I advice you to get rid of it: push it h7-h5-f4-f3  --> white has to take it, it hopefully the h-pawns suicide mission created some weaknesses, or at least got out of the way for a black rook on h8.

Ah, and there is s.th. I dont understand: 7...Rh8-g8 is not the best move for black here, as it stands currently better on h8 because it supports the suicide mission of the h-pawn.

Also 8.Re1 isnt so useful, as white cant follow up f2-f4-f5 or d2-d4-d5.

Instead the white rook might sit for the moment on f1 a bit longer, until it is clear if it is useful for supporting the f-pawn or not. The half open e-file is not use at the moment for white.

Instead white should fight against the black c4-pawn, as this holds white back: so 8.Nb1-a3 threatening Na3xc4 comes to my mind. Note that Na3 acts against b7-b5 to, as Na3 could take on b5 (Na3xb5).

But if black does a7-a6 or Bd7 (instead of Rg8) then white really should play a2-a4 first.

Hope I could bring some light into this position for you. 

Kag_Moon.....this really helps me.Thanks for your comprehensive reply.

I do not think that using nextchessmove.com for studying openings is the best way. In your position black is fine only if black knows what the good plan is. I've heard this quote: "A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan."

Sometimes you can read for example assessment "and white has a strong positional advantage". In reality it means "no advantage at all unless you know how to get something from it". 

For that reason I'm always trying to play positions I understand and study more to understand more positions. 

Use this website to correct this https://chessmoveexpert.com

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I don't think you're approaching the opening correctly.

For starters, you're just following the main engine line, you're not analyzing the many aspects of the position, which include human and practical aspects, and choosing your lines based on that. And you don't really have the chess intuition to choose the right lines, you need to understand basic chess principles first. To learn about that... keep playing, maybe watch some videos where good players discuss games and openings.

But furthermore... you shouldn't be analyzing the opening in depth yet anyway, because you're only rated around 1150 rapid. I usually recommend people not learn the opening in depth until they're around 1800ish. Before then... you should just learn the first 5-6 moves. Get an overview first.

But you should also be generally very weary of playing sharp engine lines which require deep prep and memorization. At the very least you shouldn't play such a line at all until you're 1800, but even then... the position you posted, while it's fine for black, is just one of many. Even if you drill a sharp line, a few months will go by and you'll have forgotten it often times. Especially if it's a rare line... The bowdler at higher elo is played in 1% of games... some people call it the "I don't know how to play chess" variation, I think this is an apt name. I think it's not common or good enough to really justify drilling a sharp line for.... in these cases what you should really do is save your memory and just play a simple, straightforward sicilian setup where you're already equal or better. That'd be my recommendation here, even to an 1800+ player.

What I recommend you do instead is just play a simple taimanov structure with a6 / e6. This works well not only against the Bowdler, but also against the Smith Morra. You can also use it against the closed sicilian, and other rare lines like the mengarini (a3), some wing attacks... understanding this taimanov setup will improve you as a sicilian player. It's one of the common structures.

Probably the two thematic structures which excel against anti-sicilians are dragon and taimanov. Both do very well when the opponent doesn't punish them sharply, and anti-sicilians are not sharp.

You can often get in d5 very quickly with these french sicilian setups, and the conventional wisdom is that once black plays d5 in the sicilian... he's equalized. And that's usually true, especially in these anti-sicilian sidelines. You also get to tempo the bishop... it's an added bonus. This gives you something very simple and straightforward to play for here.

In response to a6 alot of players respond with a4, which is a mistake and black already has an edge at -0.10 here... you essentially got a free a6 and control over b5, which shuts down any knight antics / makes Qc7 safe, you also get a hole on b4 for your bishop or knight... and you'll be able to push d5 soon, it's a great position for black

It helps to play a variety of sicilians before you settle on just one. Play the Taimanov, get to know it a little bit... then switch to another sicilian. Play a dragon for a while... etc. You're not gonna know what you want to play until you've done some experimenting.

Does it matter after 12 years?

Next time you should try to be a bit faster, and reply in less than 11 years.

You should get a life, I see you say that every time a thread is necrod and someone doesn't notice.
Someone will learn something from my vast knowledge I'm sure.
Funny enough though I just saw this frog player on the forums... he came back. Maybe he'll see the thread and learn from it, he's still 1150.

Hey, wait a minute! I didn't expect an answer from you before 2036. Why are you so hasty all of a sudden?

I've spent a significant amount of time and effort asking nicely multiple times over the past 10 years for old threads to be locked like they are on any sensible forum.

The other idea I had was for team chess with conferring that we can see - which started last year and was an incredible success. The reason it works so well is because humans are natural collaborators and also it turns chess into much more a spectator "sport" because we can see more of what's going on as it's happening rather than just guessing and only seeing something from the players every 10 minutes.

Instead of actually caring about taking good suggestions I've seen Danny Rensch and other chess.com admin in videos actually mocking some of the chess.com feedback and support questions - yes some of them were dumb but they were sent in good faith. Some people just can't handle success, suddenly everything they do is right as has been seen in the latest Elon Musk meltdown.