If white is opening with moving the E pawn (in front of the king) to E4, then you can engage with the Sicilian defence by moving C pawn in to C5.
How to start the Sicilian defense?
Pro’s of using the Sicilian defense?
– It unbalances the game, which means that white has to make several decisions early on in the match instead of just building up their structure and activating several pieces.
– It gives the defending player, black, a good chance of attacking since the development of the pieces for white might be a bit slower than usual.
– It’s always tougher for white to play a proper game if they’re being attacked early.
Cons of using the Sicilian defense?
– As with any other opening, there’s alot of ways to counter the blacks answer, but so is every single opening.
– If played properly, in higher ratings, white has a 4.4% higher chance of winning in this initial position. But considering that the vast majority of players are in the lower rankings, it’s positive for the black player to shake things up in order to force the white to make early decisions which they might not be used to.
– To execute the Sicilian perfectly, you need to do alot of theory crafting and try in real life games. Considering that every opening is easy if the opponent makes the moves you want them to make. But since they want to win too, you need to be able to adapt to pretty much every single response that white makes in this start position.
Analysis:
In almost 2 million games analysed, we can see that white wins 37.4% of the time, while black wins 33% of the time.
