The Safest Sicilian.  Inside info from one of the Taimanov's top practitioners.  And all you need to play the opening.

I really have to agree on Mastering the Spanish. Great book and the reason I also bought Mastering the French, because I liked the idea of presenting the opening in terms of pawn structures.

WSS wrote on 07/05/11 at 12:06:57:


I second that one. Maybe time for a re-read to see how it has aged. I played Portisch's recommendations in the French for quite some time http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1253635790/all

I change my mind quite often, but here are my current favorites:

Against 1.e4: Moskalenko's two books on the french. If I had to choose between them I would choose The Wonderful Winawer. I really like the fact that each chapter begins with verbal explanations of the typical motifs and plans for both sides, a brief history of the variation, pictures of famous french players and french terminators, as well as statistics. To me, a book like this is much more enjoyable to read than most opening books, which are loaded with many different variations, and only brief explanations. I can never remember all of the variations anyway, so for me a book with great explanations is worth much more. Moskalenko's prose is always a joy to read as well. My only complaint is that some lines are analyzed quite heavily, while others are barely looked at at all - within the variations covered in the books of course. 

Other books for black against 1.e4 I have used in the past that I really enjoyed include: 'The Ruy Lopez: a guide for Black' and 'The Easiest Sicilian.' These books are quite different from each other, but both of them really helped me understand the opening that I was playing at the time. 

Against 1.d4: This is a hard one, as I have not found a book for black against 1.d4 that really strikes me as awesome. Out of the books I have, the best would probably be Leningrad System by Kindermann. It is quite good, but I would not put it in the same category as the books I mentioned above for black against 1.e4. 'Play the Nimzo-Indian' is quite good as well. I really like the lengthy explanations, as well as the complete games format. I think the book is a little too biased towards black however. 

As white: I am playing 1.d4 now, so my favourite would probably be 'Playing the Queen's gambit: a grandmaster guide.' I like the repertoire choices, as well as the complete games format. Considering how sharp the repertoire is, I think the author certainly could have analyzed deeper in several places though, or at least explained things a bit more. I have GM repertoire 2, but I do not like it as much. I recognize that it is very good, but I feel it lacks verbal explanations, and I would prefer a complete games format. It is a great book, but I am probably not strong enough yet to appreciate the depth of the analysis, as well as all the novelties. 

When I played 1.e4 I really liked 'Dismantling the Sicilian.' That book has the right balance of analysis and prose for someone like me, as well as complete games. 

'Grandmaster Repertoire 1' was the book that had the most profound influence on how I studied my openings. So from a learning perspective this is my favourite book.

My favourite book at the moment is 'Experts on the Anti-Sicilian', which in my view is the best Anti-Sicilian book ever published, but I am a bit fickle and will surely change my mind before 2012 begins. 

Against d4: The Safest Grunfeld - Delchev & Agrest [may change my mind after I finish Avrukh's 2 Grunfeld books]
Against e4: The Sharpest Sicilian - Kiril Georgiev & Atannas Kolev
White: Wojo's Weapons 1+2

One of my favorite opening books to read and analyse is Morozevich's The Chigorin Defense According to Morozevich. It's refreshing to read a repertoire book on an offbeat line that acknowledges its eponymous opening isn't objectively best. And yet it has so many brilliant, original games to analyse it's hard to think of a better book.

There are so many great opening books out there.  Lev Polugaevsky's The Sicilian Labyrinth deserves mention as do John Nunn's Beating the Sicilian series. Both were very readable and chock full of ideas and suggestions for how to play the positions, and not just memorize moves.

Watson's Play the French was another book in the same vein, focusing on helping the student to remember key ideas as well as concrete variations. 

For correspondence play, Khalifman's Openings According to have been invaluable. I only have worked through major parts of the White according to Kramnik and White According to Anand series, but I have seen some of the others and they are all of uniform high standards.

Other great opening books include Schandorff's Playing the Queen's Gambit and Avrukh's Grandmaster Repertoire: 1.d4

Another one of my favorite opening books is Mikhail Gurevich's Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov Variation. It is still topical even today because he included tabiyas and problem positions that were designed not just to elicit "correct" answers, but to enhance the reader's understanding of the opening by forcing the student to delve into difficult, unresolved positions. It is absolutely brilliant!

There are many others, but those are my current favorites.