Sicilian
https://lichess.org/study/u1dpetnv

As far as name value goes, what other opening holds the same amount of respect as the Sicilian. We have the Najdorf, Dragon, Kan Sicilian as the big guns. Then we have the highly respected Shvesnikov, Kalashnikov, and Taimanov. I ended up learning the Sicilian very much later in life(unfortunately). My first step in learning the Sicilian was not being afraid to play it. For me this lasted about a year, and it started with the Kan Sicilian. After good results, I obviously stopped playing the sicilian…

 

The reason was I was playing lower rateds and winning, but I didn’t have confidence that I knew it enough to play against strong competition. If only there was some online resource that really guided people how to play the Sicilian at that time!

 

To learn the Sicilian my trainer and I went through the book, The Sicilian Defense: The Chelyabinsk variation. Funny story about this book is the author absolutely despised the Grandmaster who created the Sveshnikov, Evgeny Sveshnikov. He believed it should be called the Chelyabink variation because many players from that area of Russia made the variation famous. This was the starting point, then we took the Sveshnikov to practice.

 

Now we took the Sveshnikov to tournament practice. I have never lost in a chess tournament with the Sveshnikov. With 20+ games of the Sveshnikov, it has passed the test. This includes a win against GM Alonso Zapata, draw against GM Cardoso Cardoso, and some draws against IMs and strong players. It can be a lot to memorize, but winning by checkmate is always a great feeling!

 

The Sicilian is an attacking opening. We are immediately challenging the center, and we will try and control as much space as possible. The first big question is the d4 square. Can we control the d4 square? If we can, black has already equalized and is doing well. Enjoy these variations, and enjoy striking fear into the hearts of your opponents!