---
title: I Tried Quitting Theory (Chess Experiment)
description: Do Club Players Need Opening Theory?
image: https://image.lichess1.org/display?fmt=webp&h=550&op=thumbnail&path=aBuWo0mpAjYj.webp&w=880&sig=41ab4c180de39e708578fd84539d7117080ba733
---

**The No Theory Chess Experiment (1600+ Games)**

I’ve never really liked opening study, I’ve got to be honest. I always found it a distraction from what I considered more important areas of chess study, like tactics or playing over master games.

As a 1.e4 player, the Sicilian was a particular minefield. All those potential lines that Black could throw at you. What a pain.

I tried the crazy route of preparing for all the different Dragons and Najdorfs and Sveshnikovs – the list was endless.

I bought opening books and studied the lines via the database and made some ground, but it just felt overwhelming, even with a set-up that attempted to play simiilar structures. What’s more, my score against the Sicilian wasn’t great.

Something had to change.

One day I thought about something offbeat and completely devoid of theory. **2.Bd3!?** It looked ridiculous on the surface, but the idea was to try and take the Sicilian player completely out of book and to aim for **e4–e5** structures.

I thought I’d invented a new opening, only to find that IM Danny Kopec had tried the same approach. Phew, it couldn’t be completely crazy then, I thought.

So, I dropped the traditional Open Sicilian and tried the **2.Bd3** idea for more than 700 games. Would this strange-looking move with no theory attached stand up to traditional Sicilian theory at the 1800 club level?

I tried this and gathered the data, which is as follows:

**Traditional Sicilian:**
Games: 898
Win: 45%
Draw: 5%
Loss: 50%
Score: 47.5%

**Bd3 Sicilian:**
Games: 745
Win: 50%
Draw: 5%
Loss: 45%
Score: 51.5%

So, the Bd3 Sicilian outscored the traditional Sicilian set-up by 3.5%. Not a massive increase. However, this involved no theory whatsoever and allowed me to work on more important aspects of chess.

You can see more about it in the four-minute video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G8h77qGcDg