With what game can one train a person to think logically, calculate their actions several moves ahead? Of course, chess will succeed in this. Some people classify them as sports games, others strongly oppose such a statement. After all, how can a game of chess be a sporting event? Here, neither run, nor jump, nor throw anything. But then you need to think, think, analyze. And this is much more important than throwing, skating and somersaults.
Where did they come from?
Many researchers claim that India is the birthplace of chess . But there are theories that their invention is associated with Mesopotamia and the Middle Kingdom. It goes without saying that before India presented the world with chess in the form in which we know them today, they were preceded by other games, not as complex as chess, but still somewhat reminiscent of them.
Among the ancient manuscripts, one can find the legend that the creation of chess is the work of a certain Brahmin. He asked his master for such a valuable invention, a seemingly insignificant reward. He wanted to get such a number of wheat grains, which should have come out if they were laid out on a chess board in the following order: put one seed on the first cell, two on the second, four on the third and so on, each time increasing the number by half. As a result, it turned out that so much grain is not present on the whole Earth.
But since chess is not mentioned in any literary source until the sixth century AD, most historians believe that chess appeared precisely at that time.
A bit of Sicilian defense history
The Sicilian Defense is a chess debut. It begins with moves 1.e4 c5. Players knew this defense back in the 16th century. Gioachino Greco and Giulio Polerio used it in their parties. At the heart of this debut is a tendency to create asymmetric positions.
The Sicilian defense was first mentioned in the sixteenth century in the treatise of Lucena. Further, historians can find information about this debut in the later works of Greco and Palerio. Protection was of relative relevance in the nineteenth century. It was used by such popular chess players as Howard Staunton, Louis-Charles Mach, Louis Paulsen and de La Bourdonnais. But with the beginning of the twentieth century, the demand for the Sicilian debut fell significantly. Jose Raul Capablanca, the third world chess champion, considered this defense imperfect.
Only by the beginning of the 40s of the last century the demand for protection began to gradually increase. This was facilitated by Alexander Kotov, Isaac Boleslavsky and other players. A little later, a contribution to the theory of this defense was made by Lubomir Luboevich, Leonid Stein, Ben Larsen.
Among the modern grandmasters who prefer Sicilian defense are Garry Kasparov, Boris Gelfand, Alexei Shirov, Vashvanan Anand and some other famous personalities.
How do black react?
The Sicilian Defense is the favorite debut of many players. It is used by only novice persons and professional grandmasters. In this defense, many sub-options and systems are distinguished. Let's consider some of them.
Open Sicilian
This group of systems includes games where white chess fights for a central location with the moves d2-d4 and g1-f3. Black pieces can react in different ways, for example, a variant of a dragon. This name comes from the location of the black pawns, which in appearance looks like a dragon.
Option Sveshnikov, or Chelyabinsk option
Defense in chess according to this system means that the plans of black pieces include an active game in the central part of the board. Anyone who plays with white pieces will try to use all the weak points of his opponent. This option is actively used by the grandmasters of the highest category.
There are many other options for Sicilian defense, but those who have just entered the world of chess will have enough of what has already been described.
Physical training for a chess player
Some skeptics are sure that physical training does not matter to a chess player. You know how the Sicilian defense and other openings in the game work, and that's enough. And no! The state of health for the grandmaster is as important as for any other athlete. After all, a chess player spends several hours indoors, sitting at a table and thinking intensely. Therefore, he must be well prepared for this process and the conditions in which he will be.
So, the player will need dumbbells, a treadmill, a barbell. Actively working with all this equipment, the grandmaster will gain physical strength, oxygen will flow more actively to his brain, and accordingly, ideas for the game will begin to appear more productive for him.
Start playing today
Having met the expression “Sicilian defense” (chess) and reading the description in this article, you can not understand a lot without practice. All this can push away and lead to the conclusion that chess is too tough for you. But this is not so. You just need to find patience and desire in yourself, and everyone can become a famous chess player.