Sicilian Defence Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White due to the high success rate of the Sicilian defence against 1.e4. "New In Chess" stated in its 2000 Yearbook that of the games in its database, White scored 56.1% in 296,200 games beginning 1.d4, but 54.1% in 349,855 games beginning 1.e4, mainly due to the Sicilian, which held White to a 52.3% score in 145,996 games. 17% of all games between
Ruy Pérez Ponce de León Ruy Pérez Ponce de León Ruy Pérez Ponce de León or Rodrigo Pérez Ponce de León (b. ? - d. 1295) was a Spanish noble of the House of Ponce de León, in the service of the Kingdom of Castile. He was the 15th Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava from 1284 to 1295 under King Sancho IV of Castile and further served as Mayordomo Mayor del Rey from 1293 - 1295, also under Sancho IV. Ruy was the son of the Count of Cabrera, Pedro Ponce de Cabrera and his wife, , one of the illegitimate daughters of