Willempie wrote on 01/16/07 at 13:07:38:


Perhaps you're right.  A couple of years ago I looked at this with one of my students, and we felt that White could demonstrate little and was probably worse.  But now that I have had to play the Black side of it, I am less certain that Black is better.

IMJohnCox wrote on 01/16/07 at 14:14:02:

What was the result? I had never heard of it

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danheisman/Articles/evaluation_of_material_imbalan...
Some statistical considerations, maybe of some use

PS I had this variation in one of my first Taimanov outings and had a cakewalk. The minor pieces are like a plague for white.

IMJohnCox wrote on 01/16/07 at 12:25:57:


Thanks for your reaction.  I'm happy to have the instruction of an IM on this point.  But, for better worse, I decided to try to open the game.  We'll see how it turns out.   

Do you know of any good references on the play of the queen versus three minor pieces?

The position after 13.Qg4:

http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.phpfen=r1b1k1nr/1pbp1ppp/2n1p3/8...

Black's issue is to get the pieces out!

I firmly believe that 13...Be5! is much suprior to the submissive 13...g6. I think Rizzitano’s line with 18…0-0 (?!) is not the best way for black to play this position.  I believe black should hack violently at the white center with 18…g5! 19.fxg5 Nc6 to clear the way for his minor pieces.  I would like to hear a more qualified opinion though…

Hmm. Apparently, I spent quite some time looking at poor blitz games before posting.

Markovich wrote on 01/15/07 at 19:45:35:

Rizzitano gives 13...Be5 as an interesting variation recommended by Delchev/Semkov (where it is the main line) and tries to improve over the Delchev/Semkov variations on move 18 (Rizzitano diverges from your game on move 15, because he only cover 15.Qf3 and 15.Qxg7?) claiming a slight edge for white. Rizzitano's mainline is 13...g6, which he also seems to belive to be slightly better for white. Rizzitano's recommendation for a safe game appears to be 7...Nf6 with an eventual transposition to the Scheveningen in mind.

Donaldson's book "A Strategic Opening Repertoire".

The games from this book can be downloaded here:  http://wwwu.uni-klu.ac.at/gossimit/c/book.htm

I just listened to James Rizzitano on Chess.FM and he sounded very personable and was very well-spoken. Some of the points he made concerning "Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian" and other topics:
1) Fred Wilson and an email questioner commented on how much they enjoyed the game selection.
Rizzitano said that he spent a considerable amount of time looking at every game played by players with an average FIDE rating of 2400 and above and he tried to select games which demonstrated thematic opening, middlegame, and endgame themes for each line. He also said that he tried to select the most recent games that he could find; he also tried to avoid games that have appeared in other books. He said that he selected one older game (pre-2000) by Taimanov (I see this is Game 5, Nataf-Taimanov, Generations, Cannes 1998) to show how well Taimanov played his signature line.
2) Fred asked a question about Bobby Fischer's handling of the bishop in certain bishop versus knight middlegames and endgames - Rizzitano mentioned the book "Learn from the Legends - Chess Champions at their Best" by Mihail Marin and said that this book had an excellent chapter on this topic.
I see online that this book was first published by Quality Chess in 2004 - I do not have a copy however so I am curious if other folks like this book.
3) Fred read an email question from IM John Donaldson asking if Rizzitano could please write a book on an opening repertoire for White - this led to some general laughter and Rizzitano joked that he should write the book "Opening for White According to Donaldson" and update Donaldson's book "A Strategic Opening Repertoire".
I see that this book was published by International Chess Enterprises in 1998, is out of print, and sells for US $ 75.00 on Amazon.com. Does anyone know what the strategic opening repertoire was and why this book is so expensive? Rizzitano said something about it being 1.Nf3 and 2.c4. I thought Fred said that the book was being revised, but he did not say if IM John Donaldson was doing the revision.
Rizzitano said that it is much easier to write an opening repertoire book for Black than for White because of the number of lines you need to include to ensure proper coverage - he gave the example of one-volume king pawn opening repertoire books that recommend the Scotch Game rather than the Ruy Lopez because of space considerations - if they covered the Ruy Lopez, they would have to spend the entire book on 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5.
This was just a quick summary - I enjoyed the interview very much and Fred said that they are going to be replaying it for the next several days on Chess.FM.

Quote:


Wow Fernando, you are one impossible guy to please.

You want to have your cake and eat it too.

Toppers

sorry this is the wrong place to post this i guess.  I just wanted to say that the updated chess stars book on the gruenfeld is an amazing book.  I am really enjoying it.  I leant it too my teacher unfortunately, and it took a lot of convincing to get the thing back from him  - because he was nuts about it as well.

TopNotch wrote on 11/14/06 at 00:54:21:

It is in the Semkov book as well

Fluffy, Thank you very much for the clarification and review; I am looking forward to the arrival of Rizzitano's book.

Semko, Thank you also; sorry the business arrangement with the Chess Cafe did not work out, but that explains why they were selling off their remaining inventory of your books - the books are excellent by the way! There appears to be some misinformation about your Gruenfeld books on the web - maybe I read a book review somewhere that was misinformed about the differences between them.

Everyone, Thanks for your input about both of these books - two other titled players that I am friends with have emailed me that both the Rizzitano book and the Delchev/Semko book are excellent and that it is simply a no-brainer decision to buy both of them because they complement each other well - I have done so and soon I will have two excellent books to study! I am looking forward to playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6! and watching some of my opponents squirm because they can not play their boring 3.Bb5(+) lines! I will report back on these books shortly!

[Question from Dmitrya]
I noticed an interesting game today:
2006 Tal Memorial, Moscow 2006. Round 3 Taimanov Sicilian B46.
Magnus Carlsen 2698 - Shakhhriyar Mamedyarov 2728
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 Nd7 11.Qg4 g6 12.Na4 Qa5 13.Bh6 c5 (this appears to be a new move to me - 13...Qb4 was played in Magnus Carlsen - Giovanni Vescovi, Wijk aan Zee 2006) 14.b3 c4 15.Bf1 Bb7 16.Re3 Bc6 17.Qf4 Bxa4 18.Rf3 0-0-0 19.Qxf7 Rhe8 20.bxa4 Bc5 with interesting complications.
Just curious if Rizzitano covers this line in "Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian". I am going to order his book anyway because I really like Rizzitano's QGA book "How to Beat 1 d4" in particular his lines against the Veresov Opening and the Hodgson Attack have been helpful to me at my club.

Rizzitano does mention this line and here is a quote from page 37 of his book (after covering 12 Bh6 and 12 b3):
" b) 12 Na4!? (this move-order finesse is worthy of attention) 12...Qa5 13 Bh6 Qb4 (13...c5!? 14 b3 c4 15 Bf1 Bb7 16 Qh3!? looks promising for White because Black does not have the ...Qb8 idea as in the Adams-Svidler game in line 'a' above - Black's king has no safe haven) 14 Qxb4 Bxb4" (and the line continues but I will not give away the book!).
This is very impressive because two 2700 players followed Rizzitano's suggestion until Magnus Carlsen varied with 16 Re3 - note that "Chess Explained: the Taimanov Sicilian" was published during late October 2006, several weeks before the above-mentioned game was played.

I can tell you that "Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian" is a great book - very well-written with first-rate analysis and solid coverage of all relevant lines.

Dmitrya wrote on 11/09/06 at 01:18:50:


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  

Wow this forum is fantastic! Really useful stuff here! I noticed an interesting game today:
2006 Tal Memorial, Moscow 2006. Round 3 Taimanov Sicilian B46.
Magnus Carlsen 2698 - Shakhhriyar Mamedyarov 2728
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3 d5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Re1 Be7 10.e5 Nd7 11.Qg4 g6 12.Na4 Qa5 13.Bh6 c5 (this appears to be a new move to me - 13...Qb4 was played in Magnus Carlsen - Giovanni Vescovi, Wijk aan Zee 2006) 14.b3 c4 15.Bf1 Bb7 16.Re3 Bc6 17.Qf4 Bxa4 18.Rf3 0-0-0 19.Qxf7 Rhe8 20.bxa4 Bc5 with interesting complications.
Just curious if Rizzitano covers this line in "Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian". I am going to order his book anyway because I really like Rizzitano's QGA book "How to Beat 1 d4" in particular his lines against the Veresov Opening and the Hodgson Attack have been helpful to me at my club.
I am curious about the Taimanov Sicilian because this variation seems to be gaining in popularity and many of the strong young Russian and former Soviet Republic players among others have taken it up recently. Maybe this is a backlash against some of the over-analyzed Sicilian Defence variations and we are seeing the start of a new trend.
I currently play the Najdorf Sicilian but I am finding it difficult to keep up with the English Attack theory so I am looking to switch to something a little calmer. I like the Sicilian Defence positions so I do not want to switch to another opening, just to another Sicilian Defence variation. Thanks in advance everyone! Oh one more thing I am a Candidate Master (also known as an "Expert" here in U.S.A.)!

Rizzitano has made a very thorough overview and he is very clear in what he has and what he has not covered. So a novice would get a complete feel about the complete taimanov, which is an achievement in itself. What is however very remarkable, that there is little overlap between "The Safest Sicilian" and this book. It almost looks on purpose. Where he does overlap, he often gives additional analysis and / or improvements.

It is clear that Rizzitano studied all sources mentioned in his bibiography well. He gives the important analysis out of those sources, and as a rule he is giving (a lot of) additional analysis. So if you are a Taimanov fan, this book is a must. However it is not a reportoire book. The variations covered are the Paulsen Taimanov (early Qc7). All the analysed games are very recent (1998 or younger).

If you want to play the Taimanov well, I think you need next to this book for instance also Safest Sicilian. Because some important variations receive little coverage. This is due to the Chess Explained coverage concept, which I like very much, but I find 25 games or 100+ pages to limited for a complex opening.

2 questions:

1) The g3 system for White doesnt seem to have a chapter - is this lumped in with 6th move alternatives?

2) The "Sharp Variation" is presumably the modern English attack - what system does he recommend against this - at the critical juncture there is a choice between 3 different Knight moves: ...Na5, or ....Ne5 (Delchev/Semkov recomm I think), or ...Ne7 (recently resurrected by Nisipeaneau)

PS - I doubt very much Delchev/Semkov even looked at the Burgess book!

One question: Is the Delchev/Semkov book included in the bibliography?

Nothing surprising in the content list:

004 Symbols

004 Dedication

004 Acknowledgements

004 Bibliography

005 Introduction


008 1 Probing Bishop and Maroczy Bind Variations: 5 Nb5

024 2 Taimanov Introduction: 5 Nc3 a6

040 3 White's Sixth-Move Alternatives: 5 Nc3 Qc7

055 4 Flexible Variation: 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Be2

066 5 Sharp Variation: 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Be3

087 6 Paulsen Main Line: 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Be3 a6 7 Be2


109 List of Games

110 Index of Variations

Yes, I have both books, but I'm afraid I haven't had time to get stuck into either of them properly yet - still on first chapter of the Delchev..... 

I'll try to report back when I have more to offer, but I reckon the book is worthwhile from the first impressions I have.  I'll probably tackle it before continuing with Delchev, actually, but it would be hard for me to point out coverage overlaps just yet.  I also have Rizzitano's book on the QGA which you refer to, and don't think it simply apes the Chess Stars book - from the lines I've been through in that one Rizzitano seems to extend (and occasionally improve upon) the theory of the earlier work.  I'll come back when I know more....!

I thought you all should know that the above (Chess Explained - The Taimanov Sicilian)  has just been published by Gambit.  I received my copy yesterday and at a glance would say this looks like a very good book.  For me, Burgess' book on the Taimanov was a little too theory-dense, and this book looks way more suitable to my level. Together with the Delchev/Semkov book, this is something any Taimanov player will likely find useful.  Loads of explanation, but at possibly a slightly higher level than Everyman's Starting Out series of books, and enough theory for most players IMHO.
Looks like another winner from Rizzitano and Gambit.