Intrigued!
You cannot remember any info on the YouTube vids at all? I just had a wee look round, but nothing leapt out as matching what you say, alas. Possibly (likely?) me being a bit thick. Could you possibly be so good as to give us further clues, or a URL? Thanks if you can!

Bibs wrote on 12/29/16 at 07:46:53:


I seem to recall a CBM article in recent months about a trend in favor of the old-school (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 bc) recapture.  Maybe this relates to an opinion of Kramnik which I believe I read in NIC some years ago,  that 4. Bxc6 is "a very strange move" ...?

When starting to play B33 a couple of years ago, I found the most useful author to be Mikhail Krasenkow. His book is rather old now but the explanations and model games are terrific. He's also done a DVD which has been marketed with the ridiculous title of "The Psycho Sveshnikov". The first section of this, on plans, uses very primitive technology and looks a bit 'mickey-mouse'; I wasn't at all impressed, but I persevered and in the end I thought this was just a great learning tool.

Having had a series of only drawing against lower rated players who all played the line 9 Nd5 Be7 10 Bxf6 Bxf6 11 c4, and also some uncomfortable games vs the Rossolimo, I finally gave up B33 and switched to the Classical (via 2...d6 usually - I find facing the Moscow rather less daunting than the Rossolimo).

Before anybody mentions it, yes, I know you can also try to reach the Sveshnikov via 2...e6, but that brings its own set of different problems.

Of more recent sources, I prefer Kolev & Nedev (& Spasov, allegedly) to Kotronias (great author that he is), since he seems primarily interested in proving that Black is OK, rather than using B33 as an attempt to reach double-edged positions with winning chances.

@CanadianClub Apologies, I'd overlooked the part of your earlier post regarding anti-Sicilians and I inadvertently reiterated what you'd already said.

The Easiest Sicilian (by Kolev and Nedev, I think), not The Sharpest Sicilian, is the repertoire book about  the Sveshnikov. The Sicilian Sveshnikov, by Kotronias, is another repertoire book, and it's more up-to-date and more thorough. Both of these contain relatively little discussion of ideas and themes. An older book worth considering is Easy Guide to the Sveshnikov Sicilian (Aagaard) (published 2000), which has a very good section on themes and ideas. However, you might find it a bit thin on theoretical detail and it is, of course, likely to be outdated in parts. The very best work on this opening, though, IMHO, is Rogozenko's The Sveshnikov Reloaded from 2005. It is not a repertoire book, so it covers everything, including lots of interesting sidelines that never became fashionable but which are nonetheless very playable.
On a more general note, just so that you're aware what a mammoth task you're taking on, my guess is that, at 1900 Elo, considerably less than half of your 1.e4 c5 games are going to end up as Sveshnikovs, so, even after you've worked your way through all your Sveshnikov stuff, there will still be tons to do to have a viable defence to 1.e4. You will face plenty of 3.Nc3s and lots of Rossolimos, not to mention all the Closed Sicilians and 2.c3s, and you're going to need to have something ready against those.

I strongly reccomend this two books:

The Sharpest Sicilian
Georgiev,Kiril & Kolev,Atanas
2012

The Killer Sicilian
Rotella,Tony
2014

The first one in on the Sveshnikov. The second one is on the Kalashnikov (the brother variation of the Sveshnikov: less known by White players, less theory to learn, less acceptable variations for White if they want to go out of main lines...  so a best practical option). Both are good and both coves anti-Sicilians. You are going to play more Rossolimo's than Sveshnikov/Kalashnikovs, so... you need something against them.

Salut,