The Open Sicilian A Champion’s Guide by GM Ivan Saric (MP4)

Grandmaster Ivan Saric is no stranger to becoming a champion.

Since he jumped into the spotlight in 2008 (winning the world Under 18 Championship, the Croatian National title, and earning the GM title, no less!) all he’s done is winning.

He won the #1 Croatian spot, two more national Championships, the 2014 Tata Steel Challengers Group, the 2018 European Championship, crossed the 2700 rating mark, and beat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in their first-ever game.

So when you look for an opening repertoire that delivers results, Ivan’s got to be a first-rank candidate.

Beat the Open Sicilian like a Champ!

As a life-long 1.e4 player, Ivan has had his fair share of slaying the Sicilian. Indeed, his favorite Open Variation yields him 67% of points in over 300 games against 2600-level opposition.

And in this course, he is giving away his top-GM insights so you too can play the Open Sicilian like a Champion!

This will be your repertoire:

🏆 Najdorf – 6.f3, avoiding the taunting 6…Ng4 and aiming for a classical English Attack setup.

🏆 Classical – Rauzer mainlines (6.Bg5). The surprises are 10.h4 against 8… Nxd4, and 9.Kb1 against 8…Bd7, which as you will see, give White a strong pull far easier than in the main lines.

🏆 Dragon – Yugoslav Attack with 9.0-0-0 against the Classical Dragon and the Maroczy bind against the Accelerated Dragon.

🏆 Sveshnikov – the fashionable 7.Nd5, in the footsteps of Caruana. You’ll go for 9.a4 against 8…Nb8 and for 9.c4 against 8…Ne7.

🏆 Kan – 5.Bd3 and a slow fire approach to gaining space in the queenside when Black isn’t daring us to go for the throat with pawn sacrifices, which will do.

🏆 Taimanov – 7.a3, a not so popular semi-waiting move, but full of venom and practical value as it avoids reams of complicated theory.

🏆 As well as hard-hitting, principled replies against second rank variations such as the O’Kelly, the Nimzowitch, Katalimov’s, Grivas, and more.

But you won’t bash the Sicilian just by knowing the name of the variations and reciting strings of theory.

So through detailed comments, Ivan passes on his deep understanding of the typical structures, common strategical and tactical ideas, best squares for your pieces, middlegame plans, and even the history of the variations!

The course is nearly 800 variations-long of Super-GM secrets to dismantling the Sicilian.