Squeezing the Sicilian. The Alapin Variation

In the Alapin System, Blanca's strategic idea is extremely simple. He prepares to advance with d2-d4, to build a solid pawn center and then dictate the move. You will have to pay for this with the fact that the Queen's knight has been deprived of the best square for its development (c3), but may have other suitable squares (in many variations this will not be the d2 square but a3). Secondly, it happens very often that after d4 cxd4 cxd4, White's Queen's knight still has access to its best square on c3. The modern evaluation of this system is that Black has fairly comfortable lines on which he can get an acceptable game. The authors try to show that not all of these lines are equally good.