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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it? (Read 46223 times)
fling
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #50 - 12/09/12 at 21:54:13
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I would say that the Karpovian lines seem ok, and he also admits that Black's best line after 10. f4 b5 11. Bf3 is 11 ...b4 12. Nd5 (Ward gives this move ?! and suggests 12.Na4, not even mentioned by Taylor) Nxd5 13. exd5 Na5. This has in practice been better for Black I think, and I can understand why. Well, since he gives another line too, the one starting with 10. Re1 instead of 10. f4, it could have been ok. But, in this he also misses interesting and good options for Black. Anyway, not too bad, as is the part on the Alekhine attack with Be2 and Be3. Several good options for White are not mentioned, e.g. the line given by Ametanoitos, even though Gawain Jones has commented on this one here at Chesspub, citing Dearing's Play the Sicilian Dragon.

I hope the other Chapters give more variants I actually would like to play.
  
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Glenn Snow
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #49 - 07/26/12 at 16:07:43
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STEFANOS wrote on 07/04/12 at 21:53:13:
I wrote about Taylor Books and on a thread for King's Gambit and Mr. Tait had a very big disagreement with what I wrote, in a way  his was right - since I did huge mistake to compare his books woth Schiller's-. What I can say - and I mostly agree with the previous comment- Taylor is like the Herodotus of chess, and in that way his books are not so objective, they are enjoyable , funny at reading , you get interested in the opening he describes, but after that when you went to seriously study the opening you must buy something else. His previous work with a Slay on the title was much better than this one. Summarizing , Taylor books for players around 1600-2000 Elo are fully acceptable and good, beyond that level, please buy something else.


I think Taylor has mixed efforts with his books.  Some of his books have chapters a varying degrees of worth.  I'm not an expert on the Budapest but I've heard that was a pretty good book.
  
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STEFANOS
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #48 - 07/04/12 at 21:53:13
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I wrote about Taylor Books and on a thread for King's Gambit and Mr. Tait had a very big disagreement with what I wrote, in a way  his was right - since I did huge mistake to compare his books woth Schiller's-. What I can say - and I mostly agree with the previous comment- Taylor is like the Herodotus of chess, and in that way his books are not so objective, they are enjoyable , funny at reading , you get interested in the opening he describes, but after that when you went to seriously study the opening you must buy something else. His previous work with a Slay on the title was much better than this one. Summarizing , Taylor books for players around 1600-2000 Elo are fully acceptable and good, beyond that level, please buy something else.
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #47 - 07/02/12 at 01:48:41
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For me, the hardest part about reading Taylor is his recurring egocentric slant, that and his preoccupation with women.  It can really be a distraction; it's always all about him.  If you can get by all that, he's one of the more interesting writers, with good open Sicilian insights in this particular book. 
  
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fling
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #46 - 06/23/12 at 16:54:10
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MarkG wrote on 06/23/12 at 15:48:21:
Any one else in favor of this? Or would there be too much argument over what constitutes a clear cut omission?


I am for sure in favor of this. That is also why I asked about this book, since Taylor's track record shows several omissions like this. But I think that there might for sure be many arguments over what a clear cut omission is, considering how other things have been debated here at the forum.
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #45 - 06/23/12 at 15:48:21
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I think it would be a good idea to have a dedicated thread for this sort of thing. I don't mean pointing out analytical errors or new suggestions, but rather clear cut cases where known good lines are omitted. For example, the Gelfand-Leko game identified by PANFR above.

Sample post...

"if you buy this book be aware that in Ch 6 line A3, the important game A-B, is not mentioned. This game is generally considered the best response to the author's line"

Any one else in favor of this? Or would there be too much argument over what constitutes a clear cut omission?
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #44 - 06/23/12 at 03:23:10
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I gave up on Taylor some time ago. Waste of money. That dreadful Alekhine book did it for me. Always bashing straw men.
  

The Great Oz has spoken!
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #43 - 06/22/12 at 12:26:03
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I think it's well established by now that Black doesn't have a lot of problems in the 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3!? line anyway - I hope most readers put their logical caps and realize that it's not that easy. That bothers me about Taylor though.
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #42 - 06/22/12 at 09:00:37
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Taylor is constantly using the Dzindzi analytical method: omitting all annoying continuations.

One of his two model games at the 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 variation, is the blindfold rapid  game Anand- Van Wely. However, a couple of months later there was another (regular game) Gelfand- Leko, where the Hungarian more than equalized with ease. Taylor dos not mention the game at all- he prefers hiding it under the carpet instead, and this practice is spread all over the book.

Having deeply regretted in the past acquiring his Alekhine book, I sware I won't bother about any Taylor work in the future.
« Last Edit: 06/22/12 at 19:41:26 by PANFR »  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #41 - 06/19/12 at 16:18:06
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JEH wrote on 06/19/12 at 09:31:30:
Shame he didn't go for a 9. g4 Yugoslav for an even more Karpov themed repertoire.


The line 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 d6 6 Be2 g6 might have presented a problem then!
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #40 - 06/19/12 at 09:31:30
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Ametanoitos wrote on 04/25/12 at 17:28:59:
(if you exclude the Dragon chapter that is the worst) all the others are not bad.


I've acquired this book now. He cetainly does well in psyching up his audience. Although that might make me a little suspicious, I quite enjoy the writing.

The attraction for me was that a while back I created a Victorian repertoire for myself as a bit of internet chess based fun, done by selecting lines from games only from June 1837 - Jan 1901. There wasn't a lot of Sicilians back then, but when it did come up, the e4 Nf3 Nc3 (i.e. before d4) move order was popular, as was developing with Be2/Be3 behind an e4/f4 pawn centre which isn't far off what Tim recommends. Nice to see a sample game from that era in there too.

Shame he didn't go for a 9. g4 Yugoslav for an even more Karpov themed repertoire.

Certainly will give some of  this a punt online, maybe some long play games too, against the right opponents, to seed Megabase with some games to make prepping against me a little more problematic  Cool
  

Those who want to go by my perverse footsteps play such pawn structure with fuzzy atypical still strategic orientations

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, stuck in the middlegame with you
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #39 - 06/13/12 at 11:59:20
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Ok, thanks for the info!
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #38 - 06/13/12 at 11:29:18
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I think its more than a Starting out book but still not that theoretical work .
It is excellent as a  thematical game colletion if nothing else.

The book explains a lots of white plans in the for exampel the Najdorf to familares the white player with a set of ideas to use in a certian position and then explains why he thinks a certian plan is the best.
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #37 - 06/13/12 at 09:47:32
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Thanks for the answer!

I.e. you mean it is basically a Starting Out book, rather than anything else?
  
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Re: Slay the Sicilian! Tomothy Taylor. Anyone have it?
Reply #36 - 06/13/12 at 09:44:23
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I have the book and I find it interesting becouse of the model games but not becouse of theory or annotations.
  
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