Thanks CarriedbyGg!

Sorry for the long waiting. Kozul proposes 9. ... h6 10. Be3 b5.

What does Kozul suggest against 9.f3. 9.f4 is THE LINE but what about just building up slowly?

I've started working with the book a bit and I found a very impressive fault, where some side-sideline was dealt with in a separate (albeit small) chapter. In the next chapter though, the very same analysis on this very same position was repeated! Pretty weird.
Anyway, I think the pure chess content is great, but it is very poorly organised. But if you use Chessbase or something else and work yourself through the moves one by one, it is not so confusing anymore

Anyone else opinions on that book?

Thread aside, I had a nice plan for picking an Anti-Anti-Sicilian Repertoire by going e4 c5 Nf3 Nf6!? Nc3 d6. That would lead back to the classical while avoiding the Bb5 lines. The problem of course should be 3. e5 Nd5 d4!? (I don't think Nc3 is a big problem, like Aagaard) I think White gets a small edge here.

Back to the book...
I started to work on it with my ChessBase and engines and until now I checked only th first chapter. Pure chess content look great until now, but...If i was a manager of this company I would immediately sac the chief editor
Just two reasons which i spotted:
1) Did someone pay attention to the cover? Black(red) pieces are placed on a 1st-2nd row - WTH.
2) Field e1 on cover design is white - OMG
Unless I am sloppy and have problems with colors
Also while working on 1st chapter I spotted a lot of incomplete sentences, which is clear to me it is a pure database dump.

MilenPetrov wrote on 10/28/14 at 14:18:19:


I agree that the design and layout could have been better - it doesn't feel very user-friendly. However, the editors have clearly made an effort to help the reader navigate the variation's complexities and so perhaps with use one will become accustomed to it. In its favour, there is quite a lot of explanatory prose scattered throughout the book, but I think that a strategic introduction and maybe chapter summaries would have been useful. I'm guessing that many readers will use it more as a work of reference than as a learning tool.

So, I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone wishing to take up the Rauser as Black from scratch, as part of a Classical Sicilian repertoire. For that, I think the best books are still, and in order, Easy Guide to the Classical Sicilian and Chess Explained-the Classical Sicilian. I think the former is fantastically helpful in explaining the main ideas and even many important nuances, enabling the reader to start playing the lines with a degree of confidence fairly quickly. Obviously the theory in some lines has moved on, but I think that the Easy Guide, plus a good database, is all that most amateurs would need to get started playing the Classical.

Incidentally, I notice that the line of the Rauser that was all the rage in the 1990s, when it was Kramnik's favourite, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 h6. which was thought to rendered practically unplayable by the line 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Bf4 d5 11.Qe3, is refusing to die. As well as continued support from Kosteniuk (who has been playing the Classical since she was a child), there are recent games featuring other strong players as Black, such as A.Vovk (2614), C.Lupulescu (2630) and even one of the co-authors of the The Richter-Rauser Reborn, A.Jankovic (2547)!!

Got the book today and flipped some pages and lines. At first sight it is very hard reading... too much moves, messy Lines structure. I am not speaking about pure chess content at the moment...only my first impressions about the organization of the book, unclear diagrams (looks like screen grab), layout etc. I will start checking the real content tonight and hopefully will come back with a full review in a few days. For now from what I saw I can assess it as 1out of 5 stars, but again need to check pure chess content.

I've ordered it and waiting to have it in my hands within 5-6 days. I am very curious to see what Kozul have to say about my old analysis and what is new about Qe1 and Bd3 lines.I temporary stopped stopped to play Rauzer in favor of French, but I have no problem to come back again to my lovely Rauzer. Just not enough time to cross check my old analysis with newest engines and hardware.