Tame the Open Sicilian in just 40+ lines.
This old idea from 1834 takes White out of his prep, accelerates your development, and gives you sturdy positions against the Open Sicilian!
If you love unexplored but rock-solid variations no one will be prepared for, then this Lowenthal Sicilian course by NM raskerino is for you.
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 a6!? (the Lowenthal), Black is forced to give up the bishop pair and accept a backward d-pawn.
But what do you get in return?
A LOT! With NM raskerino's take on the Lowenthal, abandoning the main line 7...Qf6 in favor of the modern 7...Qe7, you get long-term positional trumps that give you winning chances all game long.
Here are 8 reasons to play the Lowenthal Sicilian:
1. You get a strong central pawn on e5, stopping White's central and kingside expansion plans cold.
And thanks to the space afforded by the e5-pawn, developing your pieces to active positions becomes simple and straightforward.
Not many black openings can promise the firm central grip, which you get so early in the game with the Lowenthal Sicilian!
2. Your king stays safe. Another perk of holding your fair share of the center. You get to play and enjoy a real game of chess...instead of worrying about razor-sharp attacks that require computer-like accuracy to defend.
And here's a fun fact: In some lines after 8.Qxe7, we even get to attack the white king in the endgame!
3. You surge ahead in development! White must spend four opening moves jumping around with his knight - and we waste no time in punishing this violation of opening principles.
4. You get sturdy positions that have been tried, tested, and approved by super GMs. Li Chao, Teimour Radjabov, and even world champion Vishy Anand used the Lowenthal to draw and even win against 2600+ opposition.
If this Sicilian is good enough for the world stage, then it's robust and promising enough for your local tournaments.
5. You enjoy a home-court advantage in most of your games. The Lowenthal is highly obscure, especially our 7...Qe7 pet line.
Chances are, the guy across you knows next to nothing about the variation...while you are familiar with its nuts and bolts. This psychological edge alone can translate to a time advantage and a better position!
6. You burden White with tough-to-solve problems. In many of the variations, the first player cannot play natural-looking moves willy-nilly...or he will lose his advantage or even end up worse.
Meanwhile, you've got a clear blueprint for punishing lazy play by White.
7. You get an extra center pawn - and the favorable endgames that go with it. And even better, the early queen trade after 7...Qe7 fast-forwards the match to the endgame. After which, you're free to exploit your central majority and active knights.
8. You have a lighter study workload. Forget about having to prepare against two dozen moves White can try on move 6. In the Lowenthal, knowing a few critical variations and the ideas behind them can go a long way.
And with only 40 trainable lines to study and an average line depth of 18 moves, this is an opening repertoire you can learn in under two hours.
Take up The Sturdy Lowenthal Sicilian today!
