Every Russian Schoolboy Knows: Carlsen’s anti-Sicilian 2

Opening: B23: Sicilian - Closed

Player(s): Lagarde, Donchenko, Xu Xiangyu, Liu Yan

GM Yermo is back to opening, and in this four-video series, he shows us how the World Champion and numero uno Magnus Carlsen deals with the Sicilian defense. A fantastic series of videos you can't miss!
World Champions are trend setters, and Magnus Carlsen is no exception here. While his great predecessor Garry Kasparov was in the driver's seat of the computer-powered opening theory express, Magnus prefers to take side trips by bicycle, unhurriedly propelled forward by the power of his mind. One can take sides in this argument, but, all the same, one can't argue with success - Carlsen's way is the way of modern chess. One great example of this approach is presented in Video #1. In a principal battle against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, the man behind opening preparation of Vishy Anand during their World Championship matches, Carlsen went off the rails as early as move 3, introducing a new concept of fianchettoing White's dark-squared bishop in the Sicilian Defense. Somewhat contradictory to himself Wojtaszek, who normally plays the Najdorf, chose a Scheveningen setup, but misplayed it with the untimely h7-h5, and went down without much of a fight. Others were quick to follow Carlsen's footsteps. Games shown in Video #2 illustrate the degree of difficulty for Black even in case of more measured treatment (no h7-h5).