Stomp the Sicilian The Maroczy Bind – Vjekoslav Nemec

Put a stranglehold on the Sicilian

The Sicilian Defense is often a thorn in the side for 1.e4 players, with many tactical games arising from it. Elite players know this, and use it to play for a win with Black.

Stomp the Sicilian: The Maroczy Bind illustrates how the Maroczy Bind pawn structure (pawns on e4 and c4) is a great practical choice against any Sicilian setup, often denying Black the tactical battle they’re hoping for. It’s a unique Maroczy course, exploring some second moves by Black that no other Chessable course has covered thus far.

The course not only shows how the Maroczy Bind can be quite frustrating for Sicilian players, but also how it is a common and useful pawn structure that may arise out of other openings (for example, in 1.d4 openings in King’s Indian setups), thus giving you a flexible and dynamic repertoire.

The positional pressure placed on the Black pieces will prove too much to handle, leading to Black frustratingly misplacing their pieces, which you can tactically punish. That’s because you deprive Black of the most appealing squares for their pieces.

In this course, the goal will be to obtain the Maroczy whenever possible, with the following ideas:

♟ After 2…d6 you’ll play the Prins Variation (3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3!?), protecting the e-pawn and preparing a c-pawn push

♟ The O’Kelly (2…a6) and the Accelerated Dragon (2…g6) will be met with the thematic 3.c4, one of the main theoretical moves against both setups

♟ The move 2…e6 is also met with the relatively fresh Kramnik Sicilian, arising after 3.c4

♟ 2…Nc6, preventing the Maroczy, is also covered, together with some other rare 2nd moves (2…Nf6, 2…Qa5, 2…b6 and others), providing you, thus, with a full anti-Sicilian repertoire

Not just another memorization course

The power of Chessable MoveTrainer when it comes to memorizing opening variations is well known.
However, in this course, CM Vjekoslav Nemec has gone a step further and provided you with additional material aimed at developing your understanding and highlighting key ideas, themes, and motifs hiding behind deep opening lines:

♟ A special chapter on typical pawn structures and typical middlegame plans associated with each of these structures

♟ An overview chapter before every theoretical section, highlighting the author’s choices and most important lines

♟ 25 master-level games and 11 games by the author himself, presented in the form of a mini-strategy course, with separate puzzles highlighting key moves of each and every individual game

♟ An additional It’s Your Move chapter, featuring 50 tactical puzzles from the author’s online games, allowing you to exercise your tactical vision and foster your pattern recognition even further

Crafted by a former Chessable employee and successful course author

CM Vjekoslav Nemec knows what goes into a great Chessable course. After all, he worked for two years at Chessable as a chess editor and publishing manager, so he has first-hand experience in seeing what goes into successful courses.