Dmitrya wrote on 11/09/06 at 01:18:50:
Just curious if Rizzitano covers this line in "Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian".
I will side with Willempie and say that if you are interested in playing the black side of the Taimanov your MUST HAVE is Delchev and Semkov's "The Safest Sicilian". Just think: super GM Delchev, who has played the Taimanov countless times from both sides, together with IM Semkov (who is a frequent visitor in this forum and was very helpful in discussing the book's material), share with you invaluable in-depth knowledge of how to play this variation with concrete explanations, objective evaluations and accurate analysis. There is nothing quite like it in recent chess theory literature.
The Rizzitano book is IMHO a decent effort and a "nice to have", but A) it gives just a partial coverage of ideas (as in all the "Chess explained" series) for
both sides, and B) it is not realy in the same league as "The Safest Sicilian".
I will add that Rizzitano provides some coverage of the 5...a6 variation (Delchev and Semkov give only 5...Qc7. Personally I never trusted 5...a6, but it was played by Anand, Svidler and Rublevsky - so who am I to judge?), but the concrete 12.Na4! is given only as a brief side note.
Finally, at my level (Fide 2141) I mainly encounter (and I play the Taimanov a lot) the variation with bishops on e2 and e3 and with short castling. English attack is rather rare and <2200 players usually have no clue how to play it against the Taimanov