I really enjoy replaying chess games from the 19th century. Tarrasch’s book called simply 300 chess games is full of wisdom about concrete positions, searingly analysed without any help from the computers upon which modern day analysts depend. His confidence is sometimes annoying but he is invariably correct.
So it was with great pleasure that I read through the historical overview presented by Evgeny Sveshnikov in Chapter 1 of his recent book The Complete c3 Sicilian.
There was nothing stuffy about the great players of the past. They loved to bamboozle each other with opening surprises just as much as the creative geniuses of today. Simon Alapin, whose name is associated with the 2.c3 variation of the Sicilian defence, tried to bamboozle Tarrasch with it in the great tournament of Vienna in 1898. Tarrasch was unimpressed. He immediately brought his queen out, flouting common decency in a way that Evgeny Sveshnikov still cannot forgive:
“It is amazing that it should be Tarrasch himself who made such a move! A queen sortie like this will not even equalize, let alone refute the system.”
A shocking queen sortie
Nevertheless, Tarrasch went on to win the game and the tournament.
Alapin-Tarrasch
Vienna, 1898
1.e4 c5 2.c3 Qa5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Na3 e6 5.Nc4 Qc7 6.d4 cxd4 7.Nxd4 a6 8.Bd3 b5 9.Ne3 Nf6 10.0–0 Bb7 11.Nf3 Bd6! 12.Re1 Ne5 13.Nxe5 Bxe5 14.Nf1 0–0 15.Qe2 Bc6 16.Bg5 Rfe8 17.Qe3 h6 18.Bh4 Nh5 19.Bg3 Nf4 20.Bc2 g5 21.Nd2 Qd8 22.Nf3 f6 23.Nxe5 fxe5 24.f3 Kh8! 25.Qc5 Qf6 26.Qd6 Rg8 27.a4 Raf8 28.Bd3?! h5 29.axb5 axb5 30.Rf1 h4 31.Bxf4 gxf4 32.Kf2 Rg5 33.Rh1 h3 34.gxh3 Rfg8 35.Ke1 Rg2 36.Be2 Bxe4 37.fxe4 f3 38.Bf1 Rg1 0–1
The Alapin Sicilian is still treated with contempt by many chess professionals. Alexander Delchev, who makes a living out of playing the Black side of the Sicilian Defence has only 3 sentences on Alapin’s variation in his book The Easiest Sicilian:
“In the “normal” Sicilian [He means without the move 2… e6, which is the subject of his book] 2.c3 is considered to be rather timid. You’ll hardly see a top-level GM to play it regularly. The main lines are depressively equal and deeply explored.”
Sveshnikov, who has devoted his life to this variation, agrees that Black can equalise with correct play but can also go wrong very easily and, “In order to play for the win, Black has to take big risks.”
Like playing 2… Qa5, for example!
The Complete c3 Sicilian is a beautiful book. The New in Chess imprint is really one of the best and this is an excellent book for learning about chess. Sveshnikov seems to have a passion for teaching and he devotes as much energy to the middle and endgame positions arising from this variation as he does to the opening moves, which he explains in painstaking detail. There are some very interesting asides about all manner of chess lore and this promises to be the most absorbing collection of games I have seen in a long time.
Casual Checks 