As a confirmed Caro Kann player, I must confess I have succumbed to the temptation to buy this book. I put it down to trying to play the Najdorf when I was first getting into the game, driven by Fischer hero worship (a not uncommon comment I know). Anyway, I came to my senses and played the Open Games for years, before getting into the Caro. I still think the Caro will remain my main defence but I have always been tempted to try the Najdorf, at least in friendlies or on the internet. This book seemed to hit all the right notes e.g. ...,e5 whenever possible, the "sensible" main line against Bg5 and the stated intention to try to "teach" the Najdorf to it's readers. I'm impressed at first glance and have scanned out the basic repertoire in ChessBase. I intend to use it, read based on games played and if the worst it does is sharpen my tactical ability and feel for the initiative, I will be very satisfied. I'll also probably play better in the sharp Caro main line with Bf5 !

BobbyDigital80 wrote on 12/18/19 at 04:42:50:


White can force a draw in at least one line.

Laramonet wrote on 12/11/19 at 20:40:10:

After 536 pages of Najdorf analysis, the book concludes with an 8-page bonus.

The Appendix starts off referring the reader to:

Grandmaster Repertoire 6A  by Kotronias which is a 500-page book on just anti-Sicilians, and

Grandmaster Repertoire 6 by Ftacnik which also includes anti-Sicilian coverage.

Quote:

2.Nc3 Trickery is a one-page discussion, reminiscent of Transpo Tricks by Soltis.

The Moscow Variation is 6 pages of analysis on 3...Nd7. 

For 3...Bd7 the reader is referred to Ftacnik, for 3...Nc6 to Kotronias.

Bibs wrote on 12/15/19 at 10:36:26:



Thanks! I'm more of a lurker now. 

At my level of play, I don't expect my opponents to know all the PP theory anyway so it hasn't been an issue. White is playing with even more risk than Black so I think it's a fair line. The forcing and initiative seeking play also makes sense to me. A lot of moves you can just eliminate on principle. I guess the biggest problem with it is that maybe someone could force a draw as White but I've never seen that.

Anyway, I don't have the book yet and I own more Najdorf books than I've actually read. Is there a particular line here that gets far better coverage than in other books? Basically, what's the selling point compared to most of the ones in the last year or so?

Bibs wrote on 12/15/19 at 10:36:26:


I am not an expert at all, status same as you (and not as strong player). But I have looked at the line a bit now, and it doesn't look like much fun for Black. I'd say that there is an improvement on the analyzed game in the side note, on move 22 (has been played in one corr-game before). I doubt that too many will find this, but the resulting variation looks rather thankless for Black. Sure, the knight on e5 is well placed, but to me it seems like White is playing for two results here.

7...Be7 still looks like less theory than the Poisoned Pawn, Gelfand, etc. Saying "it looks like Black is going to get mated at any second" makes me wonder if you've even read the chapters? I have it on Forward Chess and it all looks pretty reasonable to me. Any it's what the author has played. In any case, there are a million Najdorf books that cover other lines. Did we need a third book on the Poisoned Pawn?

I'm really struggling to understand why he'd ever pick Be7. I'm sure it's ultimately sound if Black plays the correct moves but it always looks like Black's about to get mated at any second and White isn't playing with the same risk as in the Poisioned Pawn. It even seems like it's just as much theory in some of the lines presented here. He'd probably avoid more theory with some early Nbd7 move instead. Can anyone really explain this to me? Am I missing some advantage of Be7 besides just the fact that the author is very familiar with it?