Open Sicilian

An Ambitious White Repertoire for Club Players

Ivan Saric

• Publisher: Chessable
• eBook ISBN:
  9789083311258
• Year: 2023

The Sicilian Defence is the most attractive and most complicated opening in chess. If you don’t play the Sicilian with White or Black, you miss much of the beauty and the challenges our royal game offers. For White 1.e4 players, building a repertoire against 1…c5 should be their priority.

Croatian top grandmaster Ivan Saric is one of today’s greatest Sicilian experts. He plays 1.e4 with White and the Najdorf with Black! With The Open Sicilian, based on his highly acclaimed Chessable course, he has managed something impressive: a watertight repertoire against the Sicilian of just over 400 pages. But reading this one volume, your knowledge of this opening and chess, in general, will make a spectacular jump.

The Open Sicilian is not a phonebook crammed with computer lines but a textbook full of 21st-century chess wisdom. Saric covers the entire range of Sicilians, from obscure sidelines to the main lines: the Najdorf, the Taimanov, the Rauzer, the Kan, the Sveshnikov, and the various Dragons. His approach, firmly based on the ideas of the English Attack, is very ambitious, and he supports his claims with deep analysis and illuminating and elaborate verbal explanation.

Saric has written a book that will serve as a standard work for many years. He offers you the content to be fully armoured against all the intricacies of all the topical Sicilian lines.

Table of contents

• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Explanation of symbols
• Preface
• Chapter 1 – 2.♘f3: minor second moves for Black
• Chapter 2 – 2...♘f6: Nimzowitsch/Rakhmanov Variation
• Chapter 3 – 2...a6: O’Kelly Variation
• Chapter 4 – 2...g6 3.d4 ♗g7: Semi-Modern
• Chapter 5 – 4...g6 5.c4: Maroczy Bind
• Chapter 6 – 4...d5: early strike in the centre
• Chapter 7 – 4...♕b6: Grivas Variation
• Chapter 8 – 4...e5 5.♘b5 a6: Löwenthal Variation
• Chapter 9 – 4...e5 5.♘b5 d6: Kalashnikov Variation, 7...♗e6
• Chapter 10 – 4...e5 5.♘b5 d6: Kalashnikov Variation, 7...b5 8.♘d5
• Chapter 11 – 2...e6: minor fourth moves for Black
• Chapter 12 – 5...♗b4: Pin Variation
• Chapter 13 – 4...a6: Kan Variation with 5.♗d3 various fifth moves for Black
• Chapter 14 – 4...a6: Kan Variation with 5.♗d3 5...♘f6 and 5...♗c5
• Chapter 15 – 4...♘c6: Taimanov Variation 5...a6 and 5...♗c5
• Chapter 16 – 4...♘c6: Taimanov Variation with 5...♕c7
• Chapter 17 – ...e6 and ...d6: Keres Variation
• Chapter 18 – 4...♘f6 5.♘c3 ♘c6: Four Knights Variation
• Chapter 19 – 2...♘c6, 4...♘f6 5.♘c3:
• Chapter 20 – 5...e5 6.♘db5 d6: Sveshnikov Variation with 7.♘d5
• Chapter 21 – 5...g6: Dragodorf with ...a6
• Chapter 22 – 5...g6: Dragon Variation 9.0-0-0, various moves
• Chapter 23 – 5...g6: Dragon Variation 9.0-0-0 d5
• Chapter 24 – 2...d6, 4...♘f6 5.♘c3 ♘c6 6.♗g5: Rauzer Variation, various moves
• Chapter 25 – 2...d6, 4...♘f6 5.♘c3 ♘c6 6.♗g5: Rauzer Variation, 6...e6 7.♕d2 ♕b6
• Chapter 26 – 2...d6, 4...♘f6 5.♘c3 ♘c6 6.♗g5: Rauzer Variation, 6...e6 7.♕d2 ♗e7
• Chapter 27 – 2...d6, 4...♘f6 5.♘c3 ♘c6 6.♗g5: Rauzer Variation, 6...e6 7.♕d2 a6
• Chapter 28 – 2...d6, 5...a6: Najdorf Variation with 6.f3 e6
• Chapter 29 – 2...d6, 5...a6: Najdorf Variation with 6.f3 e5 – 9.0-0
• Chapter 30 – 2...d6, 5...a6: Najdorf Variation with 6.f3 e5 – ...h5
• Index of variations
• Index of names