Chess Gambits Against The Sicilian Defense – GM Boris Alterman
Looking for ways to defeat the Sicilian defense? Grandmaster Boris Alterman and GM Alex Lenderman cover four sharp and aggressive opening gambits you can play against the Sicilian Defense.
The Sicilian Defense – famed chess opening, known as one of the sharpest, most double-edged, aggressive, complicated and successful chess openings for Black.
It is said that you don’t really understand chess until you’ve explored the Sicilian Defense!
It’s not an easy opening to play, either as Black, or facing it as White. There are simply so many variations and sidelines, it is next to impossible to remember them all. It’s a good idea to learn the general ideas and principles involved and make sure you have a plan of progress.
You receive 12 top quality videos of Grandmaster analysis on these exciting openings.
About the Author:
Boris Alterman is an Israeli chess Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer (2010), and also an advisor of the Junior chess program.
He started playing chess at the age of 7. His career highlights include earning the IM title in 1991, and the GM title in 1992. He is the winner of the following Open and GM tournaments: Haifa 1993, Bad Homburg 1996, Rishon LeZion 1996, Beijing 1995 and 1997, and Munich 1992.
He plays for Rishon LeZion chess club and produces video lectures on the Internet Chess Club Website.
Is this course for me?
If you’re looking to have more fun from your chess games and create more memorable games, start adding some gambits into your opening repertoire!
Played for 100s of years, chess gambits are openings which deliberately give up a pawn (or more) too rapidly develop their pieces, start an attack and destroy the opponent in record time.
Here’s what you’ll see in this course:
Sveshnikov-Sicilian Sacrifices on b5 (5 Videos)
For years it was known to all as the Sicilian Lasker/Pelikan variation, but the name-change to Sicilian Sveshnikov (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8 Na3 b5) came into being after it was revived by the Russian Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov.
He was the driving force and inspiration of the variation during the early 1970s when he was a young IM – and back then, it was his creative mind who developed this aggressive method of playing as black.
Since then, elite stars such as Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov, Leko, Radjabov, and Shirov have all adopted this variation into their arsenal because it often leads to imbalanced positions.
There are many methods to combat the Sveshnikov, but one of the most macho involves the early sacrifice of either a knight or a bishop on b5. And in his latest series, GM Boris Alterman checks the status of both the Nxb5 and Bxb5 gambits vs. the Sveshnikov.
The Sicilian Defense – Moscow Variation (2 Videos)
A favorite of chess players is unquestionably the late great David Bronstein (1924-2006), who was nothing short of being a true chess genius.
He was an independent thinker at the board, and our gambit guru, GM Boris Alterman investigates two highly-respected (and typical) Bronstein gambits for rapid development in the Sicilian Moscow variation after 3. Bb5+.
First up will be 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bd7 Qd7 5. c4 Qg4?! 6. 0-0! followed by 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bd7 Qd7 5. 0-0 Nc6 6.c3 Nf6 7. d4!?
Smith-Morra Gambit (4 Videos)
The Smith-Morra Gambit against the Sicilian Defense (1 e4 c5 2 d4 cxd4 3 c3 dxc3 4 Nxc3!?) is perhaps not common in grandmaster chess, but at club level, it can be a very potent attacking weapon.
The gambit is named after two players, Pierre Morra from France (1900-1969) and Ken Smith (1930-1999) of the Dallas Chess Club, who popularized it to the masses by writing nine books and fifty articles about it.
We offer a 3 part series from GM Alex Lenderman, and one extra video from GM Boris Alterman covering the spectacular attacking game of IM Marc Esserman who beat GM Van Wely with the Smith-Morra.
Kamsky Gambit (1 Video)
Former US champion, Gata Kamsky, came up with a new gambit idea in the Sicilian Najdorf with 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 a4 Nc6 7 a5!? that our gambit guru, GM Boris Alterman takes a closer look at.