Bowdler Attack

The Bowdler Attack, 2. Bc4, puts the king's bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal at once. From there it eyes f7 and clears the way for quick kingside castling. White is treating the Sicilian like an Italian Game, but the analogy favors Black. The pawn on c5 already restrains d4, and a retreat to b3 is less comfortable than usual because ...c4 can chase the bishop again. The move once appeared in top-level play. Today it is mostly seen from club players and beginners who want to avoid Sicilian theory.

The standard antidote is 2...e6. It blunts the bishop and prepares ...d5, which opens the center and hits c4 with tempo. Black normally brings the queen's knight to c6 before playing ...d5. After an early exchange on d5, the king on e8 could otherwise face a bishop check from b5 along the a4-e8 diagonal. A typical sequence is 2...e6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. O-O d5 6. exd5 exd5 7. Bb3, where Black has easy development and a full share of the center. In practice 2...Nc6 is played about as often as 2...e6 and keeps the same plan in reserve. 2...d6 is a distant third.

A nineteenth-century example, Anderssen–Wyvill, London 1851, shows White taking a slower approach: 2...e6 3. Nc3 a6 4. a4 Nc6 5. d3 g6 6. Nge2 Bg7 7. O-O Nge7 8. f4 O-O 9. Bd2 d5 10. Bb3 Nd4 11. Nxd4. Soltis recommends 11...cxd4 12. Ne2 Bd7 for Black. Here again the ...d5 break came only once Black's pieces were ready to support it.

The bishop sortie works better after a preliminary knight move. In 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4, Black has no comparable way to gain time on the bishop. The usual course is a transposition to an Open Sicilian in which White has committed to Bc4. Black then has the advantage of choosing a system already knowing where that bishop stands.

The position after 2. Bc4 is common online and ranks among the most frequently reached named openings. The engine assesses it as balanced. In the Lichess database Black scores slightly better than White.