ErictheRed wrote on 10/12/12 at 14:54:18:
Michael Wilde wrote on 09/10/12 at 22:13:58:
ErictheRed wrote on 09/10/12 at 22:06:42:
Do you have the first or second edition of The Safest Sicilian? Because I'd say that the 1st is out of date (though I don't own the 2nd).
I have the Second edition, which I bought after one of your suggestions, that if I played the Taimanov I would probably want both books. Which I am glad I did, giving me more options against the Maroczy Bind and also the Queen Exchange line where Emms covers 13. ...Kf8 and Delchev covers 13. ...Be5. Very happy that I got it to have more options in different positions, so thanks for that! I wasn't planning to buy the book for the English Chapters but became interested in the 8. ...Bb4 move against the English, as another way to play against it. And breifly looking through the English chapter it looks like he made some changes and alternatives like for insatnce covering 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Qd2 Nf6 8. O-O-O Bb4 9. f3 Ne5 the main line if I remember correctly and also covering 9. ...0-0 as an alternative, of course all this is new to me!
Well I'm glad I could help you out with the book recommendation! I've played the Kan pretty much exclusively over the past few years (I just got tired of the Taimanov after playing it for 12 years or so, though I'll still wheel it out on occasion, especially after Emms' book has kind of inspired me again). Sorry I can't comment on the most current state of theory!
One great advantage of the Taimanov is that the lines are less forcing than most other Sicilians, so you can move around and pick various ways of playing against each of White's setups. It's one of those openings that it pays to be a specialist in, switching up responses and keeping your opponent guessing, IMO.
And as I mentioned in another thread, I think the anti-English Attack line 4...Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 is really worth a go; the only real downside is that White can play 6.Nxc6 now and supposedly Black would rather have his Queen on c7 than pawn on a6. That
may be true, but I still don't buy that White is getting any more than a very small edge there.
The anti-English Attack line I'm thinking of goes 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Qd2 Bb4 8.f3 d5, trying to use the Queen on a more active square than c7, for instance 9.a3 Qa5. There's a good bit of theory here, too, and I don't think it's necessarily better for Black than the regular stuff, but it's another option, less explored, and a good way to out-prepare White, I think.
Thanks for the heads up on the Anti-English line, and playing a6 before Qc7, I notice that a lot of the top players when they play the Taimanov they play a6 first, so will investigate that.
I do have another question for you, and that is I have also recently become very interested in the Sicilain Kan! I guess becuase it has similarities with Taimanov. My Question to you is I have been looking through master games in the Kan and it is amazing how many different ways you can play it. I also notice that some very strong players are playing it a lot lately and it is seen more often in some touraments I have been watching. So what sources are you using to play this opening?, the only one I have is Play the Kan 2008, but like I said looking at master games there are so many options, I think Having the Taimanov and Kan together as my main weapons against 1.e4 make a lot of sense. Do you just use databases and chesspub.com or some books? I would really like to learn the Kan also so and advice would be great. I also noticed that there are a variety of choices of style of play against the Maroczy Bind do you use Hellsten's recomended rep, or something else?
The 2 playes I have been following that grabed my interest in the Kan are Andreikin and Caruana, Caruana vs. Topalov at Tata steel was impressive and Andreikin using the Kan in tie breaks to win the Russian Super Finals was also inspiring!
[Event "Russian Superfinals (Tiebreak)"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2012.08.13"]
[EventDate "2012.08.03"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Evgeny Alekseev"]
[Black "Dmitry Andreikin"]
[ECO "B42"]
[WhiteElo "2673"]
[BlackElo "2715"]
[PlyCount "78"]
Another reason is I get sick of facing the English Attack sometimes and would like the Kan in my rep so as to avoid it when I want to. So just got very interested in the Kan and would greatly appreciate advice on this very interesting dynamic opening, so far I have Play the Kan by Hellsten and Chesspub.com Open Siclian page. And I play the Grunfeld as Black and was wondering which Sicilian compliments it, besides the Najdorf and looking at Svidler and Kamsky they both play the Kan as well. This should probably be a new thread but not sure how to switch it to one.
Thanks again, and anytime you want to impart some Kan knowledge I am all ears!