Review: Andrew Martin, The Surprising Sicilian!

Shock Your Opponent With an Early...Qb6

Review by Sean Marsh

Andrew Martin, a man who could sell snow to Eskimos and the Elephant Gambit to club players, continues his industrious output with an examination of a rare Sicilian featuring an early ...Qb6, designed to “Shock the opposition.” After 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6 Black is trying to take an early initiative by forcing White into unfamiliar territory, although this is rife with dangers for both sides.

In the words of the presenter: “4...Qb6 – to a degree – menaces the knight on d4 and tries to persuade White to play 5 Ìb3, after which the knight takes up a less influential position. This is a gain, but Black will have to lose time soon when his queen is attacked, as she inevitably will be. White can play other ideas in place of 5 Nb3, as we will see, and a sharp struggle is assured.”

Martin always presents his material with style. He sets up the DVD nicely with a typical no-nonsense introduction, followed by an instructive game and then a discussion on what he will cover and when. This enables the viewer to head straight for any particular areas of interest. Alternatives to the main lines are covered too, namely 5 Nb5, 5 Be3, 5 Na3 and 5 c3.

As usual, Martin advocates the sharpest possibilities, such as 5 Be3 Qxb2 when “Black has got to be very careful he doesn’t get murdered in his bed.” After White’s natural 6 Nd2, Black must remember to play 6...a6 to prevent White building up an automatically strong attack with a quick Nb5. 5 Nc3 is the main move and both 5...Bc5 and 5...a6 are covered, with the former offering the murkier positions.

Although some of the lines enjoy the occasional crossover with those given in The Lazy Man’s Sicilian (Bronznik and Giddins, New in Chess, 2015), which features 4...Nc5, 4...Qb6 is by no means a simple way to dodge the theoretical bullets. Black needs to tread very carefully along often narrow paths to safety. However, it is along these paths that unsuspecting white players can easily take a tumble. There is no reason to suspect that the first player will know more about the theory of 4...Qb6 than Black, making it an ideal weapon (albeit best used sparingly as a surprise).

Andrew Martin continues to produce inspirational DVDs. It must be tempting for Sicilian players to add 4...Qb6 to their repertoire, perhaps as an occasional surprise weapon in place of the Najdorf, Dragon or whatever else they might already play. It is unlikely players with white will be better prepared than well-versed black players and I imagine the material on this DVD, if studied very carefully, will definitely enable 4...Qb6 practitioners to reel in quite a few points over the board. 

The surprising Sicilian - Shock your opponent with an early ...Qb6

The Kveinys Variation : 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6! is surprisingly little-played, yet gives Black excellent chances and on this new ChessBase DVD, Andrew Martin explains how the system works.

Andrew Martin, The Surprising Sicilian!
PC-DVD, running time: 5 Hours and 19 minutes
ChessBase
RRP £26.95 SUBSCRIBERS £24.25

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