gramsci wrote on 11/09/16 at 21:26:59:


I would play 3 f4 and the GPA vs. 2...d6; and used to play 3 Bb5 vs. 2...Nc6 (someone here at ChessPub called this the
"Backdoor Rossolimo"  and I fared pretty well with it.

I still feel more comfortable playing that way, but as my play has improved, so has that of my opponents and I gradually weaned myself to the Open Sicilian... most of the time. 

Arnaudov wrote on 11/09/16 at 19:09:46:

What did you play vs. 2...d6 & 2...Nc6 then?

Thanks. I like this book and also find navigation of it difficult 

I like the Dismantling repertoire, but it is sometimes difficult to navigate so I made an index for the book.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3
2...Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4
     4...Nxd4 p. 36
     4...Qb6  p. 36
     4...g6   p. 60 Accelerated Dragon
     4...e5 5 Nb5
           5...a6  p. 68 Lowenthal
           5...d6  p. 81 Kalashnikov
     4...Nf6 5 Nc3
           5...Qb6 p. 31
           5...e5  p. 119 Pelikan
           5...d6  p. 238 Classical
2...e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4
     4...Bc5 p. 127
     4...Qb6 p. 127
     4...Nf6 5 Nc3
           5...Qb6 p. 127
           5...Bb4 p. 135 Pin
           5...Nc6 p. 144
     4...Nc6 p. 173 Taimanov
     4...a6  p. 192 Kan (aka Paulsen)
2...d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4
     4...e5  p. 199
     4...Nf6 5 Nc3
           5...b5  p. 192
           5...Qc7 p. 192
           5...e5  p. 199
           5...Bd7 p. 204 Kupreichik
           5...g6  p. 236 Dragon
           5...Nc6 p. 269 Classical
           5...e6  p. 298 Scheveningen
           5...a6  p. 330 Najdorf
2...a6  p. 28
2...b6  p. 20
2...Nf6 p. 16 Nimzowitsch
2...others p. 16

I looked at the Scheveningen chapter today. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 Nc6 De la Villa, aiming for an English Attack, recommends 7.Qd2 and comments:

Quote:

Does anyone have experience with either of these 7th moves? How "disturbing" are they really? I ask because if White tries to reach a straight English Attack against the Classical Sicilian he can't avoid them so easily (i.e. 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 d5!? / Qb6!? or 6.Be3 Ng4!?).

rossia wrote on 10/21/09 at 16:20:48:


Compared to Experts I like De La Villa's book much better. I find it very clearly structured, somehow it is really a pleasure to read the book (might also be becuase of the good production)! The repertoire fits well together, of course the bullet-proofness can only be seen in the future!

But of course this is a subjective assessment, the repertoire simply fits me better than that of Experts.
I also try to play the English attack whenever possible because I think it is the most practicable and dangerous way against the Sicilian.
Of the Experts repertoire I didn't like Bg5 against the Najdorf (great variation, but too difficult to maintain, the Maroczy against Accelerated Dragon and the Sveshnikov recommendation was also not my cup of tea.

Perhaps we could make this thread as something of an addition or discussion about variations of the book (as some of the posters already did). I noticed two holes:

In the Scheveningen/Najdorf after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd4: 4.Nd4: Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 a6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9.g4 Nb6 10.0-0-0 Bb7 11.g5 Nfd7 12.Bd3 Rc8 13.Kb1 Ne5 14.Qe1 he doesn't consider 14. ... Nbc4 which strikes me as a more logical move than 14. ... Nec4, as it makes room for the queen. Now 15.Bc1 seems logical, but perhaps is not best in this position after 15. ... Qb6 or 15. ... Qa5.
More to the point could be 15.f4, but also here the position is far from clear in my opinion:

[Event "Palau ITA open"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2009.??.??"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Korneev, Oleg"]
[Black "Grandelius, Nils"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2587"]
[BlackElo "2491"]
[NIC "SI 19.16.10"]
[ECO "B90"]
[PlyCount "106"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Nbd7
9. O-O-O Bb7 10. g4 Nb6 11. Bd3 Rc8 12. g5 Nfd7 13. Kb1 Ne5 14. Qe1 Nbc4 15. f4 b4
16. Na4 Nxd3 17. cxd3 Qa5 18. Bc1 Na3  19. bxa3 Qxa4 20. Qxb4 Qxb4  21. axb4 d5 22.
a3 dxe4 23. Rhe1 exd3 24. f5 Be7 25. fxe6 O-O 26. Rxd3 Rcd8 27. Rde3 Rxd4 28. exf7  
Rxf7 29. Rxe7 Rxe7 30. Rxe7 Bc6 31. Kb2 Rd7 32. Re6 Bb5 33. a4 Kf7 34. Rb6 Bf1 35.
h4 Re7 36. b5 axb5 37. a5 Re6 38. Rb7  Kg6 39. Bd2 Re2 40. Kc1 Re4 41. Bc3 Kh5 42.
Rxg7 Kxh4 43. Bf6 Kg4 44. Rxh7 Kf5 45. a6 Ra4 46. a7 b4 47. Bd4 Bd3 48. Re7 b3 49.
Re5  Kf4 50. Re8 Be4 51. g6 Bxg6 52. a8Q Bxe8 53. Be5  Kf5 1-0

[Event "Dubai"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2001.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Mamedov, Roufat"]
[Black "Odeev, Khandzhar (Handjar)"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2313"]
[BlackElo "2471"]
[NIC "SI 19.16.7"]
[ECO "B90"]
[PlyCount "86"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Bb7
9. g4 Nfd7 10. O-O-O Nb6 11. Bd3 N8d7 12. g5 Rc8 13. Kb1 Ne5 14. f4 Nbc4 15. Qe1
Nxd3 16. cxd3 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 Qb6 18. f5 Be7 19. h4 e5 20. Nc2 Bd8 21. f6 gxf6 22.
gxf6 Qxe3 23. Nxe3 Bxf6 24. Ncd5 Bd8 25. b4 Bc6 26. Rdf1 Bd7 27. Rhg1 h6 28. h5 Be6
29. Nf5 Bxf5 30. Rxf5 Bg5 31. Kb2 Rc6 32. a4 bxa4 33. Ra1 Rg8 34. Rf2 a3  35. Kxa3
Bd8 36. Rf3 Rg2 37. Kb3 Rh2 38. Rg3 Rxh5 39. b5 axb5 40. Ra7 Bg5 41. Ra8  Kd7 42.
Ra7  Ke8 43. Ra8  Kd7 1/2-1/2

The Mamedov game seemed better for white, but korneev's game was very wild!  


The other variation in the Najdorf has always brought my problems with white: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd4: 4.Nd4: Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 a5!? and now de la Villa offers 11.Bb5. what do you think of this move?
11. ... Na6 12.Qe2 he now doesn't consider 12. ... a4!? as played by some strong players (including Bu Xiangxi). What would you suggest for white?

Thanks guys for information.

Currently I'm working with EXPERTS vs SICILIAN 2nd ed. and I'm wondering how De la Villa's book compares with Quality Chess book regarding:

a) smoothness of proposed repertoire
b) bullet-proofness to fashion
c) overall grade

Thanks