Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5/2. c3/2...d5/3. exd5
| Sicilian, Alapin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Moves: 1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3. exd5[edit | edit source]
The natural move; eliminating the tension in the center, while bringing Black's queen to a more vulnerable position.
Although White cannot immediately attack the Queen because of the pawn on c3, in some lines the Queen can be pinned to a captured pawn on d4 (eg. 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nf3), or become a target later down the line with moves such as c4. However, the Black Queen on d5 is often one of Black's biggest assets, as it assists in ideas such as Bg4 and is exceedingly hard to kick out before White castles.
3. exd5 is the most common move after 2. d5, followed by 2. d3 and 2. e5.
Statistics[edit | edit source]
White win 28%, Draw 46%, Black win 26%. (Statistics taken from Lichess. Based off of 10,853 master games)