Brutally PUNISH the Sicilian Defense (Carlsen Used This Tricky Gambit Opening)

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🔹 Powerful Chess Opening Against the Sicilian Defense | Tricky Wing Gambit –
🔹 5 Best Chess Opening Traps in the Sicilian Defense –

In this video lesson, GM Igor Smirnov shares with you an aggressive chess opening gambit for White against the Sicilian Defense. It is called the Mengarini Variation which happens after the following moves: 1.e4 c5 2.a3.

The gambit occurs when White sacrifices their pawn after 2…Nc6 3.b4 cxb4 4.axb4 Nxb4. This tricky gambit will confuse a lot of your opponents and it gives a great attacking initiative for White.

Even the world champion Magnus Carlsen has played this opening in the World Blitz Chess Championship and won that game. Most importantly, the most played moves of Black gives White a winning advantage; yes, White has more than 70% win rates in all those variations!

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► Chapters

00:00 Mengarini Gambit Against the Sicilian Defense Chess Opening
00:21 Even Magnus Carlsen won with this opening!
01:41 White’s idea behind this opening gambit
03:03 Stats: More than 70% win rate for White
04:25 1) If Black plays 8…e5
06:38 Checkmating the Black king in the middle
07:41 If Black plays Bd6 to prevent Nc7+
09:17 Attacking the opponent’s king
10:08 2) If Black plays 8…Nf6 (forcing win for White)
13:46 3) If Black plays 8…e6 (subtle trick to remember)
16:09 4) If Black plays 8…a6

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102 Comments

  1. In Magnus's game, did his opponent play [4. … Nxb4]? This entire position is built on the Knight taking the free pawn and then booting it back for a good center. But I know in my low elo, my opponent actually just won't see the free pawn. While I can obviously imagine white just pushes the pawn to b5, what did Magnus's opponent do?

  2. This one is going into my pyle, my Gomer Pyle of "Surprise, surprise, surprise."

  3. I'd be more impressed if Carlsen used it a number of times.

  4. What about if they play e6, either instead of d5 or at some other point?

  5. Could you please also do the ‘mirror’ of this opening the Dutch Defense: Korchnoi Attack, Janzen-Korchnoi Gambit? This opening has exact the same moves but mirrored to the king side. Of course it’s different with regards to risks for the King. But I am curious what you think of it vs the Mengarini.

  6. doesnt bishop f5 and then long castle just solve this problem for black?

  7. I watched this video and then played about 30 games and still no one tried that opening with me as white. And that’s the hardest part about learning openings. You can watch a video like this twice over and that takes 40 minutes, but then by the time you actually see the situation arise in a game, you’ve forgotten the main line of the opening. Maybe I’m just a low-IQ idiot.

  8. It's kind of funny how when I was beginning learning this game I thought the best way to do so would be to memorize a different number of openings to have multiple strategies, but I always looked for this content and never found it very helpful. Now that I've found the Remote Chess Academy videos I'm starting to understand for the first time why that is. I feel like GM Smirnov is so good at demonstrating why memorization is not the key but instead focusing on comprehension of the pieces' layout on the board and what moves can be opened up by making another move. It can be really tough to see all the variations of how setups can play out but all of these RCA videos do a really good job of helping me understand not just what the strategies are but why they work and what can disrupt them. It's all so informative and after so long of not making any progress I feel the game finally starting to make some more sense.

  9. After white plays Na3, what’s stopping black from playing a6? I wonder why that variation wasn’t covered. 2:49

  10. night, bishop… try to play from black side as well…

  11. Игорь привет!мы любим ваши уроки в Лондоне,мой сын смотрит Вас на английском.уроки даёте?
    Привет из Англии

  12. Pawn to a6 problem solve to avoid the jump of knight

  13. Hi igor, I just tried out the Mengarini variation for the first time and I won! I never knew what to do against Sicilian, so this video was great. Very informative channel!

  14. The black knight 2nd move is a very poor choice to build this theory. Who would let the white unleash his rook so early in the game? As a black i d prefer push a mid pawn or the other knight

  15. your laugh at 7:19 literally made my day <3 love your content and your positive energy!! thank you for guiding us mr. Igor

  16. Thanks for this video ❣️ It actually worked against my opponent in 1600 rating 🤩

  17. I find that these videos help in giving me a basic idea of strategy and lead me to my own conclusions. Of course, these are predicated scenarios, but they aren't supposed to be repeated exactly. If they were, that would be a fallacy in itself, I like looking at these as ideas or concept games, not definitive things

  18. Ive played probably 50 games just waiting for someone to play the Sicilian and I can’t believe how brutally this worked 😂😂😂

  19. Many blunders, for example @18:54 bxc5 is a big blunder.
    So the vidéo's title should be "How to punish big blunders", it's not your best one !

  20. The most humorous game I have ever seen.

  21. Dear Sir
    When White moves the knight to the side, Black just .moves the side pawn one notch. The knight is stopped instantly. Just simple. John Thuy, Melbourne Australia.

  22. The very first time I tried this my opponent played the Nf6 line and resigned after I won his queen. These videos are fun against 1200 ELO opponents.

  23. Usually I starts the game by d4 so no one can use Sicilian defence against me but I always use Sicilian defence against my opponent but I think now I can't play Sicilian anymore.😅😅😅😅

  24. After white Na3, blacks best move is Qa5 and black is fine.

  25. Uživam ob tvojih nasmehih ob forsiranih potezah!

  26. What do you do if, after you play a3, your opponent plays g6 and fianchettoes with a bishop pointing directly at your queenside rook?

  27. Very nice gambit to crush but sir e4 c5 a3 now black can play a 5 then?

  28. I've played this every single sicilian i come across and not one single person played these variations. back to the smith morra i guess

  29. my opponent played queen instead of knight… and i was done…

  30. You dont mention 2. – d5 the principal continuation

  31. Yet another brilliant tutorial from GM Igor Smirnov….thanks so much for this entertaining and insightful adventure in the Mengarini gambit ! I look forward to trying it out!

  32. Wow! Fantastic gambit! Many thanks Igor! I was just searching for something against the Sicilian opening and You have the answer! Soo smart! 😊👍♟

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