Customer Reviews

Winning With The Najdorf

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A little background. I have played the Najdorf for years, loved analyzing it, but never felt I really understood it. My tournament score with this opening was around 50%, not good for the time devoted to it. I purchased this book, and proceeded to win the US Amatuer Championship twice, with the Najdorf winning key games. Too often books give reams of analysis or moves, ending with unclear evaluations after 25 moves. This book has tons of verbal comments. The chapter on 6.Be2 is the most important, as the author explains all the ideas and plans and the purpose behind black's 6...e5. In short, you must have this book if you play the najdorf! By the way, a sideline he recommends vs 6 Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qa5 has scored very well for me. He also covers the main lines with 8...Qc7

This must be one of the more enjoyable Nadjorf Opening works to read & understand. No labyrinth of variations to get lost in .....

Anyone who reads through this particular work on Nadjorf will have a better appreciation of the opening.

Daniel King has been able to translate his knowledge on this subject to a readable & easily digestible form.

A refreshing Chess book from the English chess continent. Personally this ranks alongside my favourite Simple Chess, written by Michael Stean -an English chessplayer who wrote books that were easy to follow & guaranteed to improve one's understanding of the game.

This is probably the best book on the Najdorf. While the theory isn't current, the author explains all the positions very well and gives you a feel for certain strategies. All the games were carefully chosen and illustrate recurring themes that can be helpful to Sicilian players. If you want "hot theory," there are are other books you can get, but they don't explain the positions like this book does. Daniel King makes the Najdorf seem easy to play and the games are fun to play through. Highly recommended.

Ive always played the najdorf eversince i was in secondary school 20 yrs ago! cos everyone else was using it! i knew not what the main ideas for black or white were, except play 6....e5 against 6.Be2 or 6.f4 or choose the main line 7...Be7 against 6.Bg5. Of course there were also the Poison pawns and Polugaevskys. But what the hell all these lines were about I hadnt the faintest idea. My only source of reference were those 'worked examples' as found in games by good ol' Fischer - he played them like this, so i do like wise. Of course Fischer knew what he was doing when he formed those ideas and strategies, as these were his expressions or application if you like, of the basic priciples of the opening, whereas my ideas were based on the Fischer ideas hence were prone to errors/blunders when the situation on the board did not allow for such ideas. result - many losses.

Now with this book I finally learn something. Now at least i know what i should be playing for and form my ideas based on the basics. To hell with all those Najdorf books which give nothing else but copious amounts of latest variations and sub variations found by modern day analysts & chess theoreticians with the help of their Fritzs and Juniors. So what if the analysis or variations of this book are dated?? Ideas and variations and counter variations change but basics dont change.It has explained the idea of that 'mysterious' (to me) 5...a6, what to do against or how to play the 6.Bc4 line and what i should strive for when im playing 6....e5 against 6.Be2 or 6.f4. etc

The section on 6.Bg5 leaves me a little mixed. I'm pretty pleased with the main line coverage of this section as this is the system which i play exclusively nowadays, but somewhat saddened that the author chose not to include the polugaevsky on grounds that its too risky. Pardon my sentimentality here as i started out with that variation only to give it up as my mind does not have the abilty to calculate all sorts of numerous variations continuosly on the board. As a short digression, in many game examples from other references the black king does end up marooned in the centre after dashing white sacrifices by white on e6, d5, f5, f6 or b5. (So who says that the king's gambit (my favorite) is too loosening??). Black's compensation for this vulnerability are his wide open lines which produce very sharp counter attacking chances and counter sacrifices. Basically black skates on very thin ice thro out the game. The poisoned pawn variation is also too complex & too heavily analysed that the author did not bother to explore it further after a brief introduction. In any case it isnt a favourite of mine as i dislike the queen being somewhat out of play on a6.

All in all a good book despite its datedness. its written in a way that is easy to understand. The 'worked examples' illustrates the authors points well. naturally he uses Fischer's games as Fiscer can be considered somewhat as an 'authority' on the opening. Its just a pity that this book was 1st published 5 yrs after i retired from competitive chess to concentrate on my studies. Only now am I really getting aquainted with the najdorf after close to 20 yrs retirement!! Hope it comes in handy whilst playing in the internet chess clubs!

David Norwood summed up openings books with this quote: "There are almost certainly more books written on chess than other sport or hobby, and yet so few can be read with anything approaching pleasure. Many opening books are little more than print-offs of ChessBase variations, with the analysis courtesy of Fritz. Any monkey could write them and I suspect that a lot of the time, they do."

Chances are, if you're reading this review you're looking to pick out a book on the Najdorf and are sifting through the scores of books that come up when you type "Najdorf" in the search bar. This book is your best bet, regardless of skill level. It is singular in its ability to describe the Najdorf.

The above Norwood quote is especially true for an opening like the Najdorf, where many think that you're lost if you're not up to date on the very latest theory. True for grandmaster play, but almost universally false for anything below IM-level games. Danny King, however, doesn't get lost in tactics or the countless variations which arise. He simply focuses on the strategy and motifs that are often present in Najdorf games.

For example, the first chapter on 6.Be2 has lived on in my mind ever since I was a puny 1000. King shows a couple crushes by white and asks the reader "where did black go wrong?" Well, white sunk a knight into the d5-square, stopped ...b5, and steadied the e4-pawn. He then shows systematically how to avoid getting stuck with a bad bishop against a strong knight, how to counterattack the weak pawn on e4, and how to get ...b5 in through pressure on the c- and b-files. It's all very simple, and through six instructive games (with their annotations) a reader can learn more than from an entire book cataloguing the 6.Be2 sidelines.

Chapters on the Fischer variation, the Bg5 lines, and the aggressive f4 variation follow similar threads. He always spends at least two pages of text explaining what white wants to do, then breaks down what black has to do to stop this. The instructive games that follow are fantastic, well-annotated, and error-free.

The only issue that could be a problem would be the books date; don't worry, up-to-date theory is not a concern for this opening (gasp!). If you know how to set up your pieces and a few easily-learned structures you're in great shape. Don't believe that you have to know the 14th move deviations in the English attack; it's not true for untitled players.

There are likely skeptics who think that this is an elementary book because it appeals to many levels; not true. The BIG problem with books like the Najdorf books by Federowicz/deFirmian, Sammalvuo, and Nunn is that the reams of variations muddy your understanding. The variations make the book complete, but repeating so many subtle changes wholly obfuscates how to play the opening. After reading "The English Attack" by Tapani Sammalvuo I felt like I'd learned a couple attacking motifs and not a whole lot more. I'd run over all the variations but still wasn't sure what I'd gotten out of the book.

Even for someone who has played the Najdorf for years, coming back to this book always gives me a fresh perspective on the opening and refreshes the little idiosyncracies that this opening encompasses. It would benefit players of all levels, unlike any other Najdorf book I've ever read (plenty). The rest of the reviews of this book are testaments to the high quality and great explanations this book has.