I liked the Be2 chapter as well, that is probably because I am very much used to the french-type positions (after a later d5)

hello MarinFan, didn't really like the 8... Bb4 9. Na4 Be7 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Nb6 Rb8 12. Nxc8 stuff for Black (difficult to win against White's two bishops), so prefer transposing to scheveningen 8... d6, but Black's life there is not a picnic either (probably need to find a good book). I also think the English Attack is not so harmless against the Taimanov, at least i'm no longer 100% certain the Taimanov is safer than the Najdorf/Scheveningen against the English Attack. Somehow after White plays Nb3/ Kb1/Bd4 Black makes all the useful moves he can... and then its White who starts the attack! i last looked at these lines with IM Sommerbauer's Chessbase CD, and I haven't started reading the Delchev/Semkov book yet (it was delivered to my home, and i'm far away from home at the moment), but will be very interested to see how they make these lines work for Black.

Yes Alumbrado, that is the right move order.  In my database there are 2 games where 2400+ players played this way with White, and in both games the 2400+ player with Black played 10...Rb8.  In the game, my opponent played up until 10.Nb6 instantly, and I thought for about 5 minutes about taking the knight, then made the practical decision to decline.  I think White gets too much compensation after 10...Qxb6 11.Nxe6 Qa5 12.Nxg7+; there may be a defence for Black here, but in practice this is not something I would want to go into (at least not without having analyzed it extensively beforehand).

@MarinFan, I'm surprised 13.c4 has never been played.  Perhaps it's an inferior move, but it looks like a fairly natural pawn sacrifice.  I'm not afraid of it though; I just wonder what the best line for Black is after this.  I'll do some analysis in the next few days, but I'm leaning towards 15...Nd5 as the improvement for Black.

Is that move order right?  I mean 10.Nb6?

After studying this book for a while, I played my first tournament game with it.  It went like this:

I eventually only drew, despite the rating difference between myself and my opponent.  However, I was curious about how to react to White's 13. c4.  I figured that I had to take the e-pawn, as White is threatening to advance it to e5 now.  White got compensation after I castled, however; perhaps I missed a chance to play 15...Nd5!? 16.Qxg7 Bf6.  I'm surprised that I couldn't find a single game with 13.c4 in my database, so I was wondering what the "refutation" is.  Thanks!

Today Anand has done exactly what I said you should not do with Black in the Hedgehog... (...g5) and lost because of the breakthrough c4-c5 - as I warned. Obviously he read the wrong book...So far in Turin they all confirm our negative evaluations. But is there a guy who would try our suggestions?!

Hello,

Another recent example of 11. Kb1 Be7 not being a good idea, is
[Event "37th Olympiad"]
[Site "Turin ITA"]
[Date "2006.05.28"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Georgiev,Ki"]
[Black "Almasi,Z"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2677"]
[BlackElo "2657"]
[EventDate "2006.05.21"]
[ECO "B48"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Qd2 Nf6
8. O-O-O Bb4 9. f3 Ne5 10. Nb3 b5 11. Kb1 Be7 12. Qf2 d6 13. Bb6 Qb8 14.
Bd4 O-O 15. g4 Bb7 16. g5 Nfd7 17. Rg1 b4 18. Ne2 a5 19. f4 a4 20. Nd2 Nc6
21. Be3 b3 22. cxb3 axb3 23. a3 Rc8 24. Nc3 Bf8 25. Bb5 Nc5 26. Rg3 Nd8 27.
Qe2 g6 28. f5 exf5 29. exf5 Qc7 30. Bd4 Nc6 31. Bf6 Re8 32. Qc4 Qd7 33.
fxg6 Qf5+ 34. Ka1 Qxg6 35. Nxb3 d5 36. Nxd5 Re4 37. Qc1 Nxb3+ 38. Rxb3 Na5
39. Rc3 Qf5 40. Nc7 Rb8 41. Bd3 Rc8 42. Qc2 Qg4 43. Rc1 Rb8 44. b4 Bxb4 45.
axb4 Bc6 46. Bxe4 Bxe4 47. Qa4 1-0

You would think this book would be required reading, when playing against the Bulgarian team. Its a shame didn't see what white had in mind against 11...Nc4 followed by a later Rb8.

Next game interesting too.
[Event "37th Olympiad"]
[Site "Turin ITA"]
[Date "2006.05.30"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Fressinet,L"]
[Black "Rublevsky,S"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2633"]
[BlackElo "2687"]
[EventDate "2006.05.21"]
[ECO "B48"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 a6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bd3 Qc7
8. O-O Ne5 9. h3 Bc5 10. Kh1 d6 11. f4 Ng6 12. Qe1 Bd7 13. f5 Ne5 14. Nce2
Qb6 15. Qg3 O-O 16. Qh4 Rfe8 17. b4 Qxb4 18. Rab1 Qa4 19. fxe6 fxe6 20.
Rxb7 Rab8 21. Rxb8 Rxb8 22. Qg3 Rf8 23. Nxe6 Bxe6 24. Bxc5 Nxd3 25. Bxd6
Rf7 26. Qxd3 Nxe4 27. Nd4 Rxf1+ 28. Qxf1 Bf7 29. Be5 Bxa2 30. Qf4 Bd5 31.
Bxg7 Kxg7 32. Qe5+ Nf6 33. Nf5+ Kf7 34. Nd6+ Kg6 35. Qf5+ Kg7 36. Qg5+ 1-0

16Qh4 TN is a funny one, is white trying to show black is in Zugzwang?! When first looked at game, thought dropped a peice to 16 ...NxB 17 p xN e5 but white has strong attacking chances after 18Bg5. Then looked at 16 ...pxf5 17 e xf5 Rf-e8 with the idea of if 19 Bg5 Nf-g4, and playing Ne5x d3 later. This kind of thing looks ok for black, when a knight can't come quickly to d5. Later looks like a smooth win for white, but Fritz thinks black can turn tables with 27...Ng3+. Must be irratating for players nowdays, when any twit with a computer can point out an error, which ruins a nice game.

Bye John S

I repeat here the announce which I posted in another thread:
In the reprinted version of the book there are a number of corrected omissions and just a few changes in the chess content.
Everyone can download the most important corrections from:
http://chess-stars.com/corrections.pdf