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Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation · B22

Alapin Sicilian Explained Through a Wild GamePlans, Pawn Structure & Turning Points

Pawn Structure, Plans & Piece Activity: what Tenezaca vs El (Alapin Variation) teaches. How White's passed d-pawn is created, supported and pushed — and what it costs the other side to stop it.

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The game

White
Tenezaca, Cristian (1875)
Black
El, Rozak (1619)
Result
1-0
Event
Olymp 2026 Open
Round
4.366
Date
19 Sept 2026
ECO
B22
Opening
Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation
Length
22:38
Level
club

About this game

An Alapin Sicilian swings wildly through queen losses and reversals before a passed pawn and a late sacrifice seal the win. Played at Olymp 2026 Open, 2026.

Lessons

What you'll learn

Passed pawn

How White's passed d-pawn is created, supported and pushed.

Doubled pawns

What White's doubled d-pawns cost in the long run, and how the other side plays against them.

Hanging pawns

White's c- and d-pawns stand together with no neighbours to support them.

Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation

The plans this opening sets up for both sides, and where the game leaves the book.

Chapters

How the video is organised

  1. 0:00Opening
  2. 4:30Middlegame
  3. 17:02Endgame
  4. 20:57Takeaways

Key positions

The moments that decided it

Move 13 — Ra2

13. Ra2 — the swing

Black's queen sits on a4, and White had a simple recapture available there. Instead, White played the rook to a2. It does eye the half-open a-file against Black's a7 pawn, but it leaves that rook sitting there for the taking, and it skips the far stronger option on the board. The engine's verdict is brutal: White's healthy edge of about three pawns turns into a deficit of over ten. This is the moment the game changes hands. For a club player, the lesson is simple: when a clearly winning recapture is sitting in front of you, take it before reaching for a quieter plan. From here, White has to fi

Move 13 — Qa3

Queen Trapped on a3

Black is winning here, and the engine preferred simply capturing the rook on a2, leaving White in ruins. Instead, Black plays the queen to a3. It still looks active, but it walks into trouble: White answers Rxa3, and the queen has nowhere safe to go. In an instant, Black hands back most of the material advantage built up over the last several moves. The position still favors Black afterward, but nowhere near as one-sided as it should have been. The lesson is simple: when a piece is undefended and reachable, take it before reaching for a fancier square. Ambition without calculation can undo a w

Move 14 — Rxa3

14. Rxa3 – Queens Off

After the queen infiltrated to a3, White had only one sensible answer: take it. The rook captures on a3, and with the engine confirming this is the only real recapture, White regains the material by scooping up Black's queen. The evaluation barely moves, still deeply in Black's favour, because the piece that made this incursion is now gone but Black's earlier gains remain. This is the moment the queens leave the board for good, and the game shifts from a middlegame fight into a queenless struggle where rooks, minor pieces and pawn structure will do the talking. Black now has to convert whateve

Move 14 — O-O

Castling Instead of Recapturing

After the queens came off, Black had a simple recapture sitting on the board: the bishop taking back on a3. That move alone kept Black clearly ahead, with the engine still favouring Black by around six pawns. Instead, Black chose to castle, tucking the king away with fourteen... O-O. It looks natural, king safety first, but it lets White's rook stay exactly where it is on a3, and the material and piece coordination White gets to keep changes everything. The evaluation doesn't just shrink, it flips: from a clear Black advantage to a swing of over three pawns in White's favour. That's the cost o

Move 17 — Bg5

17.Bg5 - Trading the Bad Bishop

White still has a large advantage here, and the engine preferred consolidating with Ra6. Instead, White plays Bg5. The move looks active, but it leaves the bishop on e2 vulnerable, and Black immediately exploits that on the next move with ...Rxe2. The evaluation swings sharply as White's coordination breaks down. The practical lesson is that an active-looking move can still be costly if it leaves another piece loose.

Move 17 — Rxe2

Rxe2: the only move

With the queens already off the board, the position still had teeth. On e2, White had left a bishop that Black's rook could simply take, and here it was the only move worth considering — nothing else kept Black's advantage intact. Black played Rxe2, picking up the bishop outright. The engine had already favoured Black by roughly two pawns before this, and the capture confirmed rather than created that edge, holding steady afterward. What it changes is concrete: material now clearly favours Black, and with bishops still on the board for both sides, Black's pair starts to matter more as the cent

Replay

Play through the game

Starting position
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 1-0

Move 0 of 83. Positions are generated from the PGN by a deterministic chess library.

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