The Sicilian Rossolimo for White – GM Viktor Bologan

Overview

The Rossolimo Variation 3.Bb5 is considered to be one of the strongest replies to 2..Nc6 in the Sicilian Defense.

The fact that the move has been played by practically all the top players proves its popularity and strength.

But the most interesting aspect of playing 3.Bb5 is that we force sharp, attacking players who love to have the initiative to forget about the Open Sicilian Defense and to adjust themselves to a new world, one full of positional ideas, manoeuvres, and nuances.

Bologan was introduced to 3.Bb5 by Vecheslav Chebanenco. The merits of the famous coach in this opening are that he worked out a complete scheme for how to play against the doubled pawns after taking on c6.

Time has proved the correctness of his theory and nowadays the best answer to 3…g6 is considered to be 4.Bxc6; also after 3…g6 one of the best replies is again 4.Bxc6.

We should not be afraid of conceding the bishop pair to our opponent.

In exchange, we get very good coordination of our pieces, usually by placing the pawns on squares of the opposite colour to that of our bishop.

About the Author:

Viktor Bologan is a pupil of the top Moldovan trainer Vecheslav Chebanenko.

For many years Bologan has been the number one in Moldova and has represented his country in ten Chess Olympiads. He has won over 50 international events.

His greatest successes were in 2003, when he first won the Aeroflot Open and then the famous Dortmund Tournament, ahead of Kramnik and Anand.

Bologan has extensive experience as a trainer and has also published five chess books and 19 ChessBase DVDs.

System Requirements:

Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 or 8.1, DirectX11, graphics card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation.

Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX11, graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11, DVD-ROM drive and internet access for program activation.