The Lazy Man's Sicilian: Attack and Surprise White

The book is well-done in many ways. I love how the author writes! The material is gradually arranged so that it really sinks in. There is only one problem, in my opinion, (this becomes pretty obvious after you're into the book a little ways), that is this opening system tends to be weak and losing. In many games, white drops pieces on the gaping abyss at d6 with not an easy task to exterminate them. Players comfortable in some tight positions may find ways to eke out a tiny advantage against an unprepared opponent. But I as White, after getting over the mild surprise of 4. ...Bc5, would be quite happy, and see this as a system advantageous to White and easier to play with more space! The idea is interesting, the book worth getting, but mostly for White players to learn how to crush Black!

This opening is a blast to play! The book covers all the lines you are going to encounter with all the theory you are ever going to need even in the RARE case your opponent knows anything about this line. But I would like to commend the author for finishing the book with a chapter devoted to the Chameleon Sicilian line so often used to avoid any 2...e6 Sicilian lines. This allows me to get a familiar position in a playable line even when my opponent does not 'co-operate'.

Excellent book. You'll bed to do some independent research on this opening, but the book is a great start. The seller is very good and delivered early and the item was in better than advertised condition.

I've been searching for an opening I can enjoy playing without having to memorize the first 15 moves of every variation. The authors make it fun to learn this opening. It has the right balance of concepts and details.

What would you do if after 1. e4 c5, 2. a3 with the idea of playing b4 no matter what Black does? We have a guy at the St. Louis Chess Center who is creaming people several hundred rating points higher than himself with this line.

Buon libro

First of all the said vaiation-1 e4 c5 2 knight f3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 knight xd4 bishop c5 (basman sale variation)So both players start with a normal open sicilian and black deviates on move 4.A commercilally available computer opening book gives blacks fourth move as a 60% 'score' for white, contrast this with the more normal 4.....knightb8-c6 which has 57.3% for white. However blacks 4......bishop c5 only has 58 games in the database while the 'normal ' 4......knightb8-c6 move has nearly 9000. These relate to games played by players with elos of 2400-2500+This underlines a fact that this is a sideline and is not often played at high levels. Which may not be relavent for 'normal players'.I recall seeing the advert for the book and the moves, I was getting bored playing my normal taimanov variation so I thought I would give it a try, at least in Online games.I would later quickly analyse the game and try to learn more of the opening with my trusted computer. I thought that my results were good, it was clear and still is that my opponents are surprised by my 4 th move. The initial moves always played quickly then a wait for whites 5 th move. I probably should add that I am not a particularly good player. I probably play around club level.So this is the level of opponents I play against.I recall watching two IM's play against each other (blitz) on you tube. I noticed that one was getting crushed , he was having problems againt the other player in some games partly because the other player was responding to whites open sicilian with the basman-sale variation (the above variation) the IM was complaining that he didnt know the opening.I learnt a few things from those games!I continued to play the variation and eventually I bought the book.It does a good job at explaining the themes and ideas, I noticed a few of the lines can be criticised with computer analysis , but that is probably something that is a feature of any chess book, also computer analysis is not always 100% transferable to human Over the board games, particularly blitz or online games.If you are familiar with the open sicilian you shouldnt have any problems learning this system.There are not many lines to learn, maybe because its a sideline and there isnt a lot of theory. I wouldnt be too influenced by the title of lazy mans sicilian, you can put in as much work as you like. The book ends with this line, the author writes- "If your results with the line should fall short of what you hope, then perhaps you have simply not worked hard enough on the material in this book? Well. in this case, at least I chose the correct title for my book..."This is a black sideline which is surprising and quite aggressive, it can lead to quite sharp positions, messy, complicated, chaotic positions, and quick wins or losses. If you do find someone who knows the theory ,you should still get a reasonable position with perhaps the normal opening white advantage.I've not yet found anyone as white who seemed to know the theory, I was pleasently surprised to find someone as black playing it against me a few days ago. I knew all the tricks so he didnt get any opening advantage, I got the normal white advantage, although I was definitely 'outbooking him'. He went on to lose .as he blundered a knight way.He was perhaps surprised to find someone who knew the theory.Maybe not a line you would want to play as black exclusively, but if you want a surprise weapon that is aggressive and are bored with your normal sicilian or just want to add another string to your bow this might be a good choice. If you think its interesting .you dont have to rush to buy the book, the variation is above, you can give it a try-just be prepared for a lot of quick wins and losses at first, and take it from there. There are no magic openings.