Originally posted by rubberjaw30In most Open Sicilians you need both positional understanding and tactical awareness. In any case, people looking to improve their game should concentrate more on tactical awareness, since that is where most games, outside the top levels, are decided. Positional understanding comes with greater experience, especially when one has the opportunity to play stronger opposition. In my experience, one of the main differences between an average IM (ca 2400) and a strong GM (2550+) is the ability of the latter to analyse long tactical lines accurately.
not necessarily in my opinion...
open sicilians do nothing for positional understanding...
and Closed Sicilian is, from what i've read, becoming more popular with new theory after white makes the e5 sacrafice...
undermines c5 square, opens diagonals for both bishops...
it looks interesting to say the least...
Incidentally, at these higher levels Open Sicilians are by far the most popular, since they seem to give white the best chance of an opening edge. The only Anti-Sicilian which seems to give white any real problems is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, which is also very popular at GM level.