TonyRo wrote on 08/28/15 at 04:21:19:


I've got one serious complaint so far, and that's because I've been spending quite a few months this year developing an 1. ...e5 based repertoire, and now I want to play the Sicilian  . Last time I played it, it was the Dragon of my teens.

From my skim reading so far, what strikes me is that you've poured into this book what me as a keen amateur wants to see, fighting chess, verbal explanations, summaries and a repertoire for the Anti-Sicilians. 

I'm expecting these will be >50% of what actually gets played against me going c5. The later is what I've been looking at, especially the Rossolimo, which I've played myself. 

It was mentioned on this thread that the King's Indian Attack wasn't mentioned in the book. Not a problem for me, as I play the KIA myself. The biggest problem players have when facing the KIA is which of the many equalising systems to chose against it. I would recommend, especially for d4 players, to take advantage of what playing a Nc6 Sicilian offers you, and play the reversed KID with c5/Nc6/d5/e5/pick your white system. Alternatively, Richard Palliser's suggestion in "Beating Unusual Chess Openings" I think would work nicely.

TonyRo wrote on 04/19/10 at 19:03:17:


I have been going through this thread, having got the book. Who'd have thought starting from this   

Seeing my parcel arrive from the Book store at work, one of my colleagues asked to see what I was reading at the moment, so I showed him.

"Is it about the Mafia?" he asked.

Best not to talk about chess with the muggles 

Today's FIDE Grand Prix featured a game relevant to this repertoire with a deviation around move 15. I figured this might be interesting for some of you. Looks like a comfortable draw for black:

http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2015-gp-khman/04-Dominguez_Perez_Leinier-Nakamura...

Greetings
David

This line is also covered by Williams in Attacking Chess: The French.

Black has even been known to adopt the Botvinnik setup against the KIA when it takes his pawn two steps to reach e5 (as in, there are old main book lines like that).

RoleyPoley wrote on 04/07/15 at 18:02:38:

Yes, I signed up for Chess Cafe just to read it - an interesting tactic I must say! 

He was very positive - I was also a fan of these, and posted them on my Facebook account as well:

- "Many chess players will not consider buying a chess book – particularly an opening book – if it is not written by a GM or an IM, but Tony’s book is clearly an exception and I hope he continues his chess writing."

- "When I started reading this book I had never heard of Tony Rotella – apparently his publisher had never heard of him either. Tony’s last name is spelled correctly on the front and back covers of the book, but on the book spine they misspelled it as “Rottella’. The good news is that after reading this book, everyone should know how to spell his name correctly."

- "Tony Rotella has written a well-researched one-volume Black opening repertoire book covering both the Kalashnikov Sicilian and various Anti-Sicilian lines. The Killer Sicilian is packed with many interesting ideas and improvements over existing opening theory."

 

    Thank you, Tony. And, I love the fact that you are so available for comments and questions concerning your work!!