So what would you play here? In hindsight it's clear that White's chance is a strong king side attack and he must not waste time. My 13. Bc4? wasn't in spirit with this, I overestimated Black's chances and thought that I need a bishop as defender of my king. Black is already better and can continue with his simple plan while I stumble to find something concrete over the board. And fail – a deserved win by Black.

Next time I will be better prepared and games like this are the reason why I need more practice. Only by getting the positions on the board it's possible to learn something about the middlegame plans or to try out different paths to find out what works or what doesn't.

One day later I had another OTB game, this time in the Lower League. My 1736 rated opponent also played the Sicilian but obviously without knowing the theory. It looked like a Paulsen spiced up with agression. After surviving the first 10 moves I got the upper hand and easy attacking moves. He was already low on time (20min left for the last 20 moves) and finally made a mistake that immediately broke his spirit:

20…d5? loses to 21. exd5 with discovered check. The game can be replayed here.

This week I will have Black in the 4th round of my tournament, and I will meet the sister of my opponent from round 2. She usually plays 1. Nf3 but maybe she prepares something against the Sicilian, who knows.

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