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How to Do the Sicilian Defense in Chess With a Pawn

At its heart, the Sicilian Defense is a veiled counterattack. It allows White to control the center of the chessboard while setting up a potentially devastating blow by Black in the middle game. The Sicilian Defense is one of the oldest and most widely played responses to White's classic Kings' pawn opening and is considered a solid defensive maneuver. While technically the Sicilian Defense only includes the first two moves of the game, there are countless popular variations that are well known and widely practiced. One of the most popular and respected variations is called the Najdorf variation, which entails an early pawn sacrifice.

Instructions

- 1
  Respond to White's classic King's pawn opening (1. e4) by moving Black's Queen-side Bishop's pawn two spaces forward (1. c5).
- 2
  Counter White's development of the knight in the second move (2. Nf3) of the popular Najdorf variation by moving Black's Queen's pawn one space forward (2. d6).
- 3
  Respond to White's next aggressive move of pushing the Queen's pawn forward two spaces (3. d4) with an equally aggressive pawn sacrifice: (3. cxd4).
- 4
  Counter White's inevitable retake of the captured pawn (4. Nxd4) by both developing the King's side Knight and attacking White's defenseless King's pawn (4. Nf6).
- 5
  Reply to White's move to develop the Queen's side Knight while protecting the exposed Queen's pawn (5. Nc3) by pushing the Queen-side Castle's pawn one space forward (5. a6). The idea here is to prevent White's Knight from moving into an attack position (6. b5).

Chess & Checkers