The Sveshnikov was considered unsound for half a century and now sits in the repertoire of world champions. With 5...e5 Black voluntarily creates a hole on d5 and hands White a permanent square for a knight, but gets space, the bishop pair and active play in return. Play through both main lines on the board.
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After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Black plays 5...e5. By classical standards this is a bad move: the d6 pawn becomes backward and d5 turns into a permanent hole where White can park a knight that nothing can chase away.
For a long time that was the verdict. The system was rediscovered and made to work by Soviet players, above all Evgeny Sveshnikov and Gennady Timoshchenko, who played in Chelyabinsk - hence its other name, the Chelyabinsk Variation.
The idea turns the usual logic upside down: the weakness is accepted on purpose, because in return Black gets space in the centre, the bishop pair and concrete play on the b- and g-files. A static weakness is traded for dynamics.
The entire fight revolves around d5. White wants to install a knight there and keep it: then Black slowly suffocates. Black is willing to give up a bishop for that knight just to remove it from the board.
Hence the main exchange of the variation: 9.Bxf6 gxf6. White wrecks Black's pawns but gives up the dark-squared bishop - and without it nobody controls the dark squares. Black gets two bishops, a half-open g-file and the ...f5-f4 and ...Bg5 plan.
The second main line is 9.Nd5, planting the knight at once and playing for a bind without touching the pawn structure. Black then looks for ...Bg5, ...Ne7 and exchanges to break free.
The Sveshnikov is for players who are happy to live with a permanent weakness and calculate concretely rather than by general rules. It gives Black a game of his own and real winning chances, but no peace: the damaged pawns never go away.
The line is alive at the very top: Magnus Carlsen has used it, including in a world championship match. That is the best answer to the old opinion that 5...e5 is a mistake.
White players who do not want to fight for d5 from memory can step aside earlier - for instance with 3.Bb5, the Rossolimo, which never allows this system at all.
These are the main named variations. Click any one of them and it loads straight onto the board above, where you can play it out move by move. The trainer itself holds more lines than this: it also covers main-line continuations and transpositions that have no name of their own.
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The Sveshnikov Variation (B33) is black accepts a hole on d5 on purpose - in exchange for active pieces. It starts with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6. Its main branches: Main line 9.Bxf6 and Sveshnikov tabiya.
In the 1970s the system was developed and played constantly by Evgeny Sveshnikov and Gennady Timoshchenko from Chelyabinsk. Russian sources use both names; in English it is simply the Sveshnikov.
It does, and Black accepts that knowingly. The d5 hole and the backward d6 pawn are real drawbacks, but Black gets space, two bishops and active play. Dynamics pay for the static damage.
Better later. The line needs concrete calculation and exact move orders: positions with damaged pawns punish passive play. Start with a classical Sicilian or the ...e6 set-ups.
Do not enter the Open Sicilian after 2...Nc6 - play 3.Bb5, the Rossolimo, and Black never gets to build this structure.
It is in the repertoire of top grandmasters, and Magnus Carlsen used it in a world championship match. It stopped being an experiment long ago.
Want the tactics that decide these positions? Start with the 12 most common opening traps and tactics for beginners. If you are just starting out, read the rules of chess and how to set up the board.
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