Great Counter to Sicilian Defense - Chess Forums (2023)

The Sicilian Defense is one of the most popular openings in chess, so why not use a sharp anti-sicilian? Learn to play the Smith-Morra Gambit!

1. e4 c5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 6.d6 Bc4 7.e6 O-O

Because White can get an active position without giving up a pawn via 2.Nf3 and 3.d4.

I can give you multiple reasons:

1) When I did play the Sicilian, I didn't play the line you gave, giving White all the fun. I think the Chicago Defense with 9...Ra7 (no ...Be7, Black doesn't have time for that) blows away the Morra Gambit. 1.e4 c5 2.d4?! cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 d6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bb3 Nc6 9.Qe2 Ra7

2) Black doesn't have to oblige, and you are stuck playing a c3-Sicilian when Black declines with 3...d5. The c3-Sicilian is insipid and gives White NOTHING! Dead equal!

White's only hope is to play either the Open Sicilian, Closed Sicilian, or Rossolimo (which can only be played against 2...Nc6 and 2...d6, stuck playing the Open against 2...e6). The rest of the systems are equal at worst for Black.

Playing an opening is all about a matter of playing style. What I can tell you about the SM Gambit is that the hardest wins I have had to play for are when Black plays e6, taking some of the sting out of the Bc4 move later on move 4 or 5 and openings where Black plays almost any other reply than cxd4 that plays to the center. there are some good traps for White but against a good Kan/Taimanov player, White can have an uphill battle to show his equality, even if he does eventually get a 6th rank pawn in the center or if Black takes in the center.

The SMG also has some ideas it shares with the Alapin but after the c3 move coming without the immediate d4, there almost all similarity stops.

A good idea going against the Siilian that is actually easy for White to set up that gets Black Sicilians out of book at times? The King's Indian Attack.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 (insert 2nd move for Black here) 3. d3 and now Black does not have the cxd4 move while White can lay ideas such as g3 Bg2 c3 (or c4) Be3 Nbd2 Qe2 and 0-0 against nearly any Sicilian setup. Is it fool proof? Absolutely not. Even if you know a line backwards and forwards but do not know how to play to transposed lines, you will be lost in your opening. But it has the chance of taking a Sicilian player and keeping him very early theory on the defense or if you get the c4 move, you have a transposed symmetrical English Opening as well to play with.

this setup seems to work better against e6 Sicilians rather the d6 Sicilians since Black can play either e6 later or even e5. Against e6, I have had soe interesting wins against the Sicilian doing this, but I also play the SMG just for kicks.

Stil, i do not consider it a complete defense for White since Black gets a d6and e6 structure and exchanges before White gets his attack going and allthat remains is whether to go to Burger King after the match or go straight home from the match.

The greatest Counter of Sicilian Defense
I used Central Borneo Opening whith odd pawn sacrifice on center of board when I face an opponent who used Sicilian. Please, check out an example as follows:

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=824362826

The best way of him, maybe he should move as dynamic diagram below:

Why don't you just give us one good one.

in both diagrams i dont see why so black gave away so many center pawns and gave white the center, it also seemed that black was opening too many lines when he should have been playing a closed sicilian. as well as protecting the king with more peices.

black just made stupid blunder's, that's all.

I have very little experience with chess and i have not yet put this into practice, so could some experts give some comment for my own version of counter-sicilian defence opening. 1.e4 c5 2.nf3 (enter black's move here) 3. c3. I am aware that this is usually considered as a bad move because it blocks your bknight. However, i think this is not a particularly bad idea as it probably will not stay there for long. After this i plan on playing d4 and when black takes it using its c5 pawn, I plan on taking it with the c3 pawn.Please be relevant, helpful & nice!

The Siberian Trap completely counters it!

Has Dannie12345 been here since 2013?

i am no expert but every time my opponent goes queen c3 i go e5 pawn , they ignore it and go knight f3 , which is their blunder , understandable and i get the queen forked to the king with bishop b4 , so watch out for that folks already had two games identical so just putting it out there
edit : my bad they took d4 pawn with queen

Fighting the Sicilian With The Grand Prix Attack...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/fighting-the-sicilian-with-the-grand-prix-attack

As well as the Grand Prix Attack I can also recommend the Closed Sicilian...

https://chesspathways.com/closed-sicilian/

I decline, transpose to c3 Sicilian and I`m laughing.

eat my banana

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The best counter to the Sicilian is the Open Sicilian.

The Open Sicilian gives you the open, dynamic position but without sacrificing a queenside pawn for dubious compensation.

Not only is white not down in material but also with the queenside intact white can castle long. Also the knight is often well placed on d4 looking at key squares and it also frees the f pawn to advance. These factors add so much more potential to white's position.

We can see how these factors come into play:

The Smith Morra is a decent alternative for the aggressive player at lower level. It can be dangerous for black if they don't know what they're doing, but ultimately it's just being down a pawn. If black can consolidate and fend off the attack, they will have a winning endgame.