7-02-10
i bought this book searching for a good weapon against 1.e4 and more precisely to fight against the english attack, i have been playing the najdorf sicilian for two decades y i always found dificulties to get an edge. with the classical sicilian i got a reliable and confident repertoire and easy to play, you dont have to memorize lots of theory like the najdorf, just you have to learn the key position and thats all, the classical sicilian fights straight away for the center, nor like the najdorf, where you have to fight first in the queenside and then later for the center.
i have studied all the main variations in the Sicilian: dragon, najdorf, scheveningen, taimanov and i find myself very comfortable with the classical variation; its fast to learn, confident, and according to chessbase statistics has scored very well against white, i highly recommend this line to whom wants to choose play something daring and solid to defeat the white pieces. in my recent games against the English attack i have scored more than 90 percent of wins.
i didnt give the 5 stars to the book because the book lacks on more tougher analysis and in the variation 6.Bg5 or better known as the rauzer variation there is a better line to fight against instead of the line that the author proposes; but this does not decreases the quality of the book.
in the boleslawsky variation the author proposes to move a5 as black, of course; an then knight to b4 attacking twice d5 freeing blacks position.
in the English attack is the same thing, attacking with this plan to knight b4 blacks frees his position and threatens to win a piece playing d5 and d4.
playing against 6.Bc4 the author proposes two lines, e6 maintaining a little center like the schevenningen or playing Be6 creating doubled pawns in the center but with a great mobility trying to play d5 an d4.
in the rauzer variation the author proposes to play Qb6 letting white to double black kingside pawns changing Bxf6.
in my personal opinion i don't agree with this line because weakens black pawn structure and get a dangerous attack for white, the rauzer is a very hard to beat attack to let your pawns get weakened in the very first part of the game, i changed my black repertoire a little playing h6 variation, which i consider a better line.
you wont get disapointed if you decide to purchase this book, its worthier than you pay for it and you will enjoy a lot of great victories as black.