The Dreaded Closed Sicilian

Submitted by eugen on Sun, 07/28/2024 - 10:20
PUBLICATION NOTE:
This article was published originally on The Chess Improver blog on 2016-09-20
I have reposted it here for reference.

Playing online is very convenient and popular today. Lots of players with busy lives can all of a sudden play their beloved game whenever they have free time from the comfort of their own home. I expect this to become widely accepted in the near future, given all positives clearly outweighing the negatives (such as the fear of assisted play). A lot of websites have made significant progress in identifying if anyone uses assistance during their games and this is only going to improve.

I play turn based games mostly with 3 days per move for both standard, as well as the chess 960 versions. It has become obvious for a while now I won't challenge Magnus Carlsen for the title any time soon, so I play mostly for fun and for practicing what I am teaching in class or in private. It is hard to be convincing in front of anyone if you have little clue about certain openings, plans or methods. You will say that 3 days per move is outrageous and I will remind you we all have a life outside chess. Count in sleeping, eating, family time, work and unexpected stuff life throws at you daily and you will realize 3 days is in reality not a lot! Wanna know how many times I had to eventually make a move in the worst possible moment? Add a dollar for each time and my bank account could look much better than it really is...

The following game was part of a very hard fought match between Canada and Germany in division A, played on 287 boards, one white and one black game on each board, plus 3 days per move reflection time. It puzzles me how spread is the use of nicknames, aliases and hidden profiles over the internet, so don't know the real name of my worthy opponent. This is a disease I am imune to and could write an entire disertation against it; of course that would be pointless and as a result I will focus on the game at hand where white played very well!

[Event "WL2016 Round 1: Team Canada vs Team Germany - Board 19"][Site "Chess.com"][Date "2016.01.15"][White "Caspar81"][Black "EugenD"][WhiteElo "2170"][BlackElo "2072"][TimeControl "1 in 3 days"][Result "1-0"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 {the dreaded closed Sicilian dampens the fun expectations of any serious Sicilian lover with the black pieces} 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.Nge2 e6 7.O-O Nge7 8.Bg5 h6 9.Be3 Nd4 {I chose to play active in detriment of castling and giving white an early King side target} 10.Rb1 Nec6 11.Qd2 Rb8 12.a3 a5 (12...b6 {was played in Hemant-Gopal 0-1, Kolkata GM Open 2015. That was not something I wanted to follow}) (12...b5 13.b4 cxb4 14.axb4 a5 15.Nxd4 Nxd4 16.Na2 a4 17.Nc1 h5 18.c3 Nc6 19.h3 O-O 20.Ne2 d5 {Hug-Cifuentes 1/2-1/2, Thessaloniki Olympiad 1984. This short draw did not inspire a lot of faith}) 13.a4 Bd7 (13...Nb4 14.Bxd4 cxd4 15.Nb5 Nc6 16.c3 dxc3 17.bxc3 {Minasian-Petrosian 1-0 in 64 moves, Yerevan 2006}) 14.Nb5 Nxb5 15.axb5 Nd4 16.c4 Nxe2+ 17.Qxe2 O-O? {was feeling good about my position and looked at it superficially. I had decided it was time to castle, maybe a natural reaction at this stage. Now I believe that was a mistake} (17...Qc7 {This is needed to defend the c5-pawn}) 18.Qd2! 18...Kh7 19.d4 {now white takes over. The c5-pawn is not defended and the exchanges on d4 would leave black with a weak d6-pawn} 19...Qc7 20.dxc5 dxc5 21.b6! {Key move winning white a pawn and a good position to go with it} 21...Qc8 22.Qxa5 Bd4 23.Bxd4 cxd4 {this passed pawn was my only chance to fight on} 24.Rbc1 f6 25.f4 {If black achieves e6-e5, things become really interesting} 25...Ra8 26.Qb4 Bc6 {It is all about piece activity} 27.e5 Bxg2 28.Kxg2 Qc6+ 29.Kg1 Rad8 30.Rcd1 Kg8 31.exf6 Rd7 {had this move planned for a long time} 32.Rd3 Rxf6 33.Rfd1 e5 34.fxe5 Qxb6 35.Qd2 Re6 36.Qxh6 Rxe5 37.Rf1 {Looking back this is the critical point of the endgame. Is it salvageable? The answer might be a simple "No" but the rest is a quick death} 37...Rg7 38.Qf4 Re2 39.Qf8+ Kh7 40.g4 Re3 41.Rf3 Rxf3 42.Rxf3 d3+ (42...g5 43.Rh3+ Kg6 44.Qf5#) 43.c5

The game lasted 2 months. I hope you enjoyed this positional struggle! It is not very often when castling proves to be fatal in such a simple yet subtle way; of course this could be above my chess paygrade if you know what I mean. Could I get some suggestions for future? Is this line versus the closed Sicilian worth using again in an improved version? Is there something else better suited I should look into? Any feedback would be appreciated; thank you!