“All of man’s unhappiness comes from his inability to stay peacefully alone in his room.” – Blaise Pascal
The Sicilian Defence is great but it does have its flaws, the main one being that the King can become stuck in the centre of the board if black is not careful enough; with some players moving every queenside pawn they have before castling becomes an option, problems may arise.
It’s 1973. Spassky just lost his title as world champion and had the Soviet government take almost all of his prize money off him also but neither misfortune stopped him from becoming the Soviet champion that year. Here he shows how in a main line, where black plays natural developing moves, king safety or lack thereof, can cost him the game in the opening. His victim that day was a certain Nukhim Rashkovsky, a man still very active in the Russian chess scene.
The Sicilian: flank play in favour of centralised piece development. The position after 7….Qc7. Since its 1973, white now plays 8. Bd3.
Black has just played 11. …Bb7. His position looks quite normal but is as so often the case with the Sicilian, white attempts to open the centre and plays 12. e5.
Play went 12. e5 dxe5 13. fxe5 Nd5 14. Bxe7 Nxc3. It’s best to stop and think what white plays next. The move itself is very sharp indeed.
The final position after 21. Qf4.
The man himself.
Home entertainment.
Enjoy the game itself.
McCreadyandChess 
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