Was talking to some friends, and the discussion turned to chess/Magic. We were discussing some of the parallels. Knowing metagames, memorizing common lines, etc.
"Bolt the bird" is a lot like the Sicilian defense. They are both common openings. Both are known board states that later branch out into more possibilities. And both encourage an aggressive trading of resources.
It's not an exact equivalence. But as a casual chess player, I thought it was an interesting observation.
Of course, I'm happy to hear both chess and Magic players tell me how wrong I am, ha ha.
Title...
So after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 the lichess analysis board says most people continue with bxc6 rather than dxc6. Why is it better/more common to take with the b pawn? Doesn't that compromise any queen side prospects for a middlegame pawn storm/endgame push? Plus, dxc6 opens up both the queen and the bishop for a central position in one tempo rather than just the bishop in a flank position. Stockfish also recommends bxc6 (albeit it is on a low depth so idk).
What do you reccommend for playing against the sicilian for a 1900 lichess player? Currently I play the Alapin exclusively. According to lichess insights, in the last month, I've won 60% of my games with the alapin, lost 36%, and drew 4%. This is actually a really good record but I'm afraid that I'm stunting my chess ability because ~80% of players don't know the theory after c3 and I just get an advantage early. Should I learn the main line or is there another anti sicilian worth considering?
Bonus question: When should I learn the sicilian myself? Apparently it's too difficult for low level players to play so I haven't learned it but I'm getting bored of playing the caro kann every game.
I've found the Sicilian Defense is pretty complicated but fun to learn however for actual game use I want to narrow my options down. Is there a list somewhere which shows the variations which are played after c5 e6, c5 Nc6, c5 d6 etc for black?
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I have only seen e5 as the response to e4 in the past 5 games so far. Is there a reason why both sides are avoiding a Sicilian?
1500-ish on chess.com and I'd like to know if at my level this is a good opening to play
Hi all, merry Christmas! I am a chess beginner (1170 on Chess.com). I really want to continue working on mastering chess principles and applying them and do not want to get into too much theory. With that said, does anyone have any recommendations for playing against the Sicilian at my level. Open to all suggestions. I know that the Sicilian is a highly theoretical opening and that there are a trillion lines that have been studied so I am just looking for a high level overview of what to do against it. Of course every position is different and there are no one size fits all solutions or openings but any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :)
e4 is Whiteβs most common first move and c5 is blackβs most common response (at least at the master level). We did not see that. Why?
I've read that they only have "goodies" in the shoes and stockings on Jan 6
Is there more to it then that?
I'm just curious
Does anyone know what influence they had on the general population? When I see Greek and Balkan scored in southern Italians in areas where there either is a large Arbereshe population or in areas neighboring their population centers I assume there is some influence.
So what percent of the population of Sicily for instance has SOME level of Albanian ancestry due to this migration event? Where would such people be found?
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(I'm thinking of people who live in a European country that is not British)
Please do not cite haplogroups. I am referring to autosomal DNA.
Does anyone have any evidence that these populations left a genetic impact on the population's autosomal DNA? I am interested to know what the truthful answer is, whether it is affirmative or negative.
With Sicilians getting a 50% reduction to incoming bonus damage, and that applying to all units from the dark age, and with them having a decent eco bonus in the better farm upgrades and extra starting stone, aren't Byzantines somewhat outdated?
Taking a look at their tech trees, Sicilians have full upgrades on infantry and cavalry while Byzantines only get fully upgraded foot archers. Lack of blast furnace makes their infantry sub par and lack of bloodlines makes their cavalry terrible. Their bonus for cheaper counter units often ends up being a disadvantage because counter units only let you defend efficiently but are poor offensively. Camels without bloodlines even lose to knights in the castle age as long as the knights have bloodlines, and you don't have an economy bonus to boom up behind good defenses.
Even if you manage to boom and get an economic advantage, there is no unit that the byzantines can make that overwhelms the enemy. Even when fully upgraded with logistica, cataphracts are weak against archers and lose to paladins, while breaking even with generic cavaliers. They also aren't immune to halberdiers, taking 16 bonus damage to them and with enough production will eventually be stopped because of how expensive cataphracts are.
In comparison Sicilian scouts and knights basically have double HP vs spears and pikes or in other words, you need twice as many counter units to counter them, and fully upgraded sicilian cavaliers (with hauberk) take 70 fully upgraded arbalest shots compared to cataphracts which can only take 30 shots while taking the same 16 bonus damage from halberdiers. And you dont need a castle to produce cavaliers.
All this is in addition to their archers and crossbows taking 2 instead of 3 damage from skirms making them excellent in castle age, and the spear line taking 1 less damage from archers (because archers have an innate damage bonus vs spears).
I feel like Sicilians have become a much better version of byzantines with a much better economy and a more straightforward and smooth mid-late game, and feel like the incoming damage reduction bonus needs a nerf.
