Closed Sicilian tactics

Nobody opens the centre, so both attacks happen on the edges, and a piece that has to travel the long way round is worth less than the file it opens.

• 120 positions in the course
• Difficulty 1059–2433
• Section: Sicilian Systems
• 5 levels

What the Closed Sicilian produces tactically

White refuses the d4 trade entirely, developing with Nc3, g3, Bg2 and d3 and only then pushing f4. The centre stays shut. That single fact changes the arithmetic of the whole game: with no open lines through the middle, a piece on one wing cannot help on the other, and material matters less than access.

So the tactics are almost all about opening one file or one diagonal near a king. A sacrifice that costs a piece and opens the h-file is frequently correct here and would be nonsense in an open position. The bishop on g2 is the emblem of the whole system: completely inactive for twenty moves, and decisive on the move the long diagonal finally clears.

How to spot it

• Count how many moves each of your pieces needs to reach the wing you are attacking on. That number is the real cost of a plan here.
• Sacrifices that open a file toward a king are worth calculating even at a big material cost, because the defender often cannot bring pieces back.
• Watch the a1-h8 diagonal in every position. The bishop on g2 is doing nothing right up to the moment it decides the game.
• The f4-f5 push is the standard lever. Work out what it opens before you spend a move preventing it.

Three Closed Sicilian positions

Three positions from the 120 in this skill, easiest first. The highlighted squares are the move your opponent has just played. Work it out before you open the answer.

Racing on opposite wings

When both sides attack in opposite directions, the only thing that matters is which attack arrives first, and the only way to know is to count moves rather than admire the position. A defensive move in a race like this costs a full tempo and often the game, which is why the strong practical rule is to defend with pieces you were not using anyway.

The commonest club-level error on the black side is playing on the queenside slowly, as though the position were quiet. It is not quiet, it just has no open lines yet, and by the time White's f- and g-pawns arrive there is nothing to do but defend.

Questions people ask

Nearby patterns

Closed Sicilian sits in Sicilian Systems. The rest of that section:

• Alapinc3, a big centre, two loose queens
• Grand Prix Attackf4, and go straight at it
• Smith-MorraA pawn for two open files
• RossolimoBishop takes on c6, then use it
• Accelerated DragonFianchetto first, then d5 in one move
• KanPawns first, pieces later
• TaimanovA queen and knight doing two jobs
• SveshnikovA permanent hole on d5