@OctoPinky said in #15:
> That's the feeling I got with Sicilian: it is defensive/passive in the sense that you are usually going to have to defend just from the start, but I would call this the opposite of "solid", as it is quite fragile.
It's imbalanced and double-edged. But yeah, black gives away some tempi on development (c5 doesn't help develop anything, an early a6 doesn't help develop anything) so white can typically start with an initiative and black starts out on the defensive.
But again, it's a question of whether "defensive" means that you're giving the opponent an easy opportunity to launch an attack because you think you can defend it successfully, or whether it means not giving them the opportunity at all by trying to stay on an even footing in terms of centre and development for as long as possible.
> That's the feeling I got with Sicilian: it is defensive/passive in the sense that you are usually going to have to defend just from the start, but I would call this the opposite of "solid", as it is quite fragile.
It's imbalanced and double-edged. But yeah, black gives away some tempi on development (c5 doesn't help develop anything, an early a6 doesn't help develop anything) so white can typically start with an initiative and black starts out on the defensive.
But again, it's a question of whether "defensive" means that you're giving the opponent an easy opportunity to launch an attack because you think you can defend it successfully, or whether it means not giving them the opportunity at all by trying to stay on an even footing in terms of centre and development for as long as possible.