Alapin Sicilian (2.c3)
The Alapin turns the Sicilian into a normal game: c3 supports d4, a pawn takes back, and you get the big centre you wanted all along. There is no forest of theory to learn, and the positions reward plain good habits — develop, castle, use the space — which is exactly what wins games under 1200.
Spar this openingYour setup
- Knightf3
- Bishope2 / c4 / d3 / b3
- Knightc3 / d2 / a3
- Bishope3 / g5 / f4
- Rooke1 / d1
- Pawnsc3 d4
- CastleO-O
c3 before d4. c3 first, so a pawn can take back on d4. Push d4 without it and after ...cxd4 you are gambiting the pawn or recapturing with the queen, which ...Nc6 kicks at once. The whole opening is the promise that a pawn recaptures.
d4 before Bd3. The bishop goes to d3 only after the d-pawn has left. On d3 in front of its own pawn it blocks d4 for good, buries the c1-bishop, and in the ...d5 lines stops guarding g2 — ...Qxg2 follows.
Ideas
The point of 2.c3 is that ...cxd4 is met by cxd4. Keep that promise.
Every Open Sicilian gives Black the d4-square in exchange for a knight there. The Alapin refuses: c3 means that when the pawns trade on d4, a pawn stands there afterwards and your centre is intact. Almost every good White move in this opening either prepares d4 or supports it.
exd5 Qxd5 d4. The black queen is out early; Nc3 will hit it later.
Black's most principled try is to strike at e4 before you finish the centre. Take, and let the queen come to d5. Then d4, Nf3 and Be2, and the moment ...cxd4 cxd4 happens the c3-square is free for the knight, which arrives with tempo on the queen. Never chase her with pawns before that.
When the knight hits e4, e5 kicks it to d5. Then d4 and Nf3.
The knight on d5 looks well placed, but Bc4 will question it and it has nowhere better to go. Meanwhile your e5-pawn cramps Black's kingside and d4 builds the centre. Do not defend e4 with d3 or Bd3 — that gives up the whole idea.
Develop around her. Nc3 comes with tempo once cxd4 frees the square.
Beginners see the black queen in the centre and reach for c4 to kick it. That gives up d4's support and the queen goes to a comfortable square anyway. Instead: Nf3, Be2, and wait for ...cxd4 cxd4. Then Nc3 develops a piece and hits the queen in the same move.
Bc4 and Bb3 aim at f7. That is pressure to keep, not a bishop to give.
In the ...Nf6 lines the bishop lands on c4 hitting the d5-knight, then drops back to b3 when kicked. It pins f7 to the king for the whole game, which makes Black's ...e6 and ...Be6 awkward. Bxf7+ Kxf7 only gives it away for a pawn; the exception is when a black piece is loose on g4 and Ng5+ wins it back.
An isolated d4-pawn means open files, a knight on e5 and a kingside attack.
In the ...d5 lines the pawns on e and c come off and you are left with a lone pawn on d4. That is the position you wanted: the e-file is half-open for the rook, e5 is an outpost for the knight, and both bishops point at Black's king. Attack while the pieces are on; the pawn only becomes a weakness in an endgame.
Castled, centre built. Now rooks to the open files and pieces toward the king.
The Alapin middlegame is a space game. With the isolated pawn: Re1, Rc1, Bd3 or Bc2 aimed at h7, Ne5, and the d5 break when Black's pieces are badly placed. With the e5-pawn: keep it defended, put a rook on e1, and use the cramped black kingside. Do not trade pieces just because you can; your advantage lives while they are on the board.
The structure
Traps
The tell: Black trades on f3 and the d4-pawn looks like it hangs to the queen.
The queen on d4 is defended only by the knight on c6. Bxc6+ removes it with check, and the queen is lost for a pawn. Your bishop on f3 does two jobs at once: it recaptures, and it sees straight through to c6.
The tell: Your bishop has just been kicked off c4, and f7 is defended only by the king.
There is no knight on g5 and no queen ready to follow. Bxf7+ Kxf7 is a bishop for a pawn, and the black king walks back to g8 in two moves. Bb3 keeps the bishop and the pin, which is worth far more.
The tell: Black pins your knight with ...Bg4 while f7 is guarded only by the king.
This is the one time Bxf7+ is right. After Kxf7 the knight leaps to g5 with check, uncovering the queen's path to g4, and the pinning bishop is simply lost. You are a pawn up with Black's king exposed.
Model games
Trade on d5, build d4, develop behind it, and let Nc3 arrive with tempo once the c-pawn has recaptured. The isolated d4-pawn gives you the open files and the e5 outpost.
e5 gains space, Bc4 and Bb3 stare at f7, and the en passant capture keeps the centre open. When the smoke clears the material is level and your pieces are the active ones.
Black plays a French with a Sicilian pawn. After the trades on d5 and c5 Black has an isolated d-pawn instead of you, and your knights head for the squares in front of it.
How the coach grades a move
Every move you play gets one of six grades, from the engine’s view of the position, with the book’s verdict taking over when it is harsher. The sentence beside it is always the reason. Tap it for what the move did, why this opening wants it, and whether anything was better.
- Best
- Nothing better was available.
- Good
- Within a few percent of best. Noise at this depth.
- Playable
- A small real gap. The better move is named, play goes on.
- Inaccuracy
- Seven to twelve points of winning chances. The game stops to show you.
- Mistake
- Twelve or more, or a move the book warns against, or a broken order rule.
- Blunder
- Twenty-five or more. Usually material.
Catalogued as B22 in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, the reference index most databases sort by.