An opening course for White (ECO B22)
2.c3 answers the Sicilian by refusing to have one. The pawn supports d4 before d4 is played, so White builds pawns on d4 and e4 and gets a big centre instead of the open c-file and the semi-open d-file every Sicilian player has spent years learning. Nothing Black plays on move two changes the plan. The trade-off is honest: this is not how you beat a grandmaster, it is how you reach a position you understand better than your opponent does, with a small stable advantage and clear play. The authors on both sides of it agree about the moves. They disagree about whether the resulting positions are pleasant for Black, and both verdicts are in the course.
This course is part of your daily work.
c3 does nothing by itself. It exists so that d2-d4 can be met by ...cxd4 and answered with cxd4, leaving White pawns on d4 and e4 and no weaknesses. Every line in this course is about getting that centre built and then using the space it gives. If Black stops you building it, develop first and build it a move later.
It looks like Black is freeing the position, but the exchange hands White the c3 square for the b1 knight, which is much better placed there than on d2 or a3 where it would otherwise have to go. A general rule from the book this course is built on: the trade on d4 makes White's job easier, not harder.
A Sicilian player has studied positions with a semi-open c-file, a knight on c3 for White and pawn storms on opposite wings. None of that appears here. The structures that do appear come from the French Defence and from the open games, and the authors on the Black side say plainly that some devoted Sicilian players find those transformations unpleasant or unacceptable.
2...e6 and ...d5 is the reply the strongest Black source recommends. Take on d5, let Black recapture with the pawn, and play against the isolated d-pawn with Nf3, Bb5, dxc5 and pressure on d5. White has a small permanent edge and simple play. Black gets attacking chances from a sound base out of the same pawn. Both of those are true at once, so learn the structure and not just the moves.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
One pawn to c3, and the game stops being a Sicilian. The pawn is not there to do anything by itself; it is there so that d4 can be built and held. Play through the main line once and the whole system makes sense.
The other main reply. Black develops and dares White to push, and White pushes: the pawn goes to e5 and the knight has to sit on d5 where it can be hit again. This is the one part of the Alapin that feels like an attack.
This is the reply the best Black source recommends, and both authors agree on the moves. Where they disagree is the verdict, and both are worth knowing before you play it: White gets a small permanent edge and easy play, and Black gets an isolated pawn that gives real attacking chances from a sound base.
Eight other second moves, and the source has a chapter on each. What they mostly have in common is that they let White build the d4 and e4 centre unopposed, which is why the answer is usually just to build it. The two exceptions are worth knowing: 2...a6 changes White's plan, and 2...Qa5 gets an unusual answer.
Club games that started in the Alapin Sicilian produced these tactics, and you solve every one from White's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.
The Alapin Sicilian is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5, and it is filed under ECO B22. This course teaches it from White's side in 12 drills across 4 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
Theory credited to
3 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
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