Customer Reviews

Easy Guide to the Najdorf

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book covers all of White's major responses and does a very good job of providing a workable Black repertoire. I especially liked his recommendation against 6. Bg5 (7...Nc6!?), sidestepping the voluminous theory of the Poisoned Pawn, Polugaevsky, Main Line etc. This book compares favorably with Danny King's "Winning with the Najdorf" which is wordier (useful for patzers like me) and has a nice historical introduction. Many of the recommendations are similar but the theory in Kosten's book is up to date. One small quibble: the cover says the book is written by a "Najdorf expert" but Kosten explicitly disclaims being an "expert" in the Najdorf, whatever that means, in the Preface. This book is a good place to start for those trying to take up this challenging but always interesting opening. If you don't like Kosten's recommendations, you can always supplement with the 2-volume "Complete Najdorf" set authored by Nunn and Gallagher.

June 2002: Time is gone for this book; new variation are being played on tournaments and update information is need it. I bought this book in 1999 and it was really helpful but it seems like new book are demanded . Nevertheless if you are a Najdorf lover then you will enjoy the games and the strategic ideas. Enjoy.

This book represent good start point to understand and successfully use the Najdorf Sicilian. The author reach the goal and wrote simple but understandable book which is the smart choice for amateur players with ELO around 2150 points. Of course if you want more details about Najdorf Sicilian you should try some other book.

I got this book so that I could learn the Sicilian, and this book does an excellent job in teaching you the ideas behind it without massive amounts of the latest novelties. The text gives you as black specific moves to play in some ways like a repertoire book, but explains the idea behind the moves. After you learn these basics you could adopt different lines, such as the poisoned pawn variation. I have, however, had good luck learning the ideas behind this extremely powerful opening.