Something I missed is in the 6.g3 Fianchetto variation where black can actually give up the d6 pawn with 13…Bxe3! Look at the game Tari vs Caruana, Altibox Norway 2020 and also GM Wahl’s video for more details: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ebuZMrkfkMs.htmlsi=YWphk5WvNpsGxV3v
I love the Taimanov Sicilian. I try to play all the similar sicilians like the French Sicilian and on the odd occasion the single kan sicilian. I love how it cuts off the right side of the board to knight and bishop attacks early on. I love the symmetry in chess If you can play it on black then you can play the same style on white. Kid has the reti as it's counter part but I've also found an English that plays out like the Taimanov sicilian I believe it's called the anti sicilian variation of the English opening It plays C4-E5,(2)N-C3-N-F6 (3)G3-D5(4)C4xD5-NxD5 It's an interesting opening. I came across it while studying the closed Catalan in response to the nimzo defence attack(with the main purpose of avoiding the knight pin with the bishop)
The Taimanov imo is the most dynamic of all Sicilians, it involves a lot of uncastled positions and has all to do with minor piece play & flexibility. It’s also sound and white has to play aggressively to fight for an advantage, leading to double edged play. Very interesting opening!
Nice tutorial! Haven't seen more then 20 minutes but already you shown very nice ideas for black. The downside of playing the Sicilian is that so many will not play the open. One has to be prepared for b3 c3, d3, Nc3, g3 and f4. 🥴
Very true and in my experience most ~1600 will avoid the Open Sicilian completely. The saying is that you have to beat the Anti-Sicilians first until players start to get better and play mainlines haha
Would you consider making a video covering Modern Benoni in future? It has fun and sharp lines and I think you'd analyze it really well. I mean, you put a lot of effort in your videos. You don't have to consider my suggestion if you have better plans ;) Btw, your Classical Sicilian playlist is helping me a lot in my games. Thank you. You're really underrated considering how complete and perfect your content is.
Thanks for this. Do you have any insight into what if anything is wrong with the sideline 7. Ne5 in the Qf3 English attack (I think this is sometimes called the "Giri line", 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Qf3 Ne5 8. Qg3 h5 9. O-O-O (9. Nf5!?, see Mamedyarov - Giri 2015, looks interesting but not to be a clear refutation) 9... h4 10. Qh3 ...). To a casual look it seems like SF is a bit more skeptical of this than the mainline, but it seems to score quite well for black in the lichess masters' database and online chessbase db.
Hey sorry for the late reply. I think that the line is fine overall, but very risky (as what usually happens in the Qf3 line). It's highly unexplored, so I think most people go for the more explored 7...Nf6 8.0-0-0 Ne5 line, though objectively both lines should lead to white having a slight edge but at the end reaching equality more or less. It does seem like a good idea to work on it as an area to out-prepare your opponent though, but it requires a load of work. Hope that helps :)
