Grandmaster Repertoire 6 - The Sicilian Defence by Lubomir Ftacnik (miękka okładka)

Second edition planned for early 2013.

Grandmaster Repertoire is a new series of high quality chess books based on the main lines, written by strong grandmasters. The aim is to provide the reader with a complete repertoire at a level good enough for elite tournaments, and certainly also for the club championship. Grandmaster Repertoire provides a repertoire to last a lifetime.

Lubomir Ftacnik is a renowned opening analyst with great experience and expertise in the Sicilian Defense. In this book he reveals his secrets to provide a complete repertoire for Black against 1.e4 with 1...c5. The meat of the repertoire is the Sicilian Najdorf – the perennial favourite of those who want to attack with Black. It is no coincidence that Fischer, Kasparov and Anand have all relied on the Najdorf. Naturally, White’s less critical tries are also covered, such as the 2.c3, 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+, and the Closed Sicilian.

Lubomir Ftacnik is a chess grandmaster from Slovakia. Despite his numerous international tournament victories, from European Junior Champion in 1977 to winning the World Open in 2008, he is most famous as an opening analyst.

ISBN: 978-1-906552-08-4 - 432 pages - Published July 2010

Reviews

"Outstandingly impressive... Ftacnik is of course one of the world's leading theoreticians, and presents a complete repertoire for Black, based on the Najdorf... a remarkably fine job."

Steve Giddins, British Chess Magazine

"It's no surprise Ftacnik, who is a life-time expert on the Sicilian Najdorf, was selected for the task to write the part on the Sicilian in the excellent series published by Quality Chess. The Sicilian Defence offers a complete repertoire against 1.e4 for the serious chess player. Its original approach (all chapters are named after famous movies!) and Ftacnik’s enthusiastic style of writing add to the general picture that this is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to start playing the Sicilian...

My conclusion is that Ftacnik, while presenting a stunningly high-level opening book, still doesn’t convincingly solve the problem of 6.Bg5 (though possibly that’s because the problem simply doesn’t have a solution!). This criticism notwithstanding, The Sicilian Defence is, of course, a wonderful opening book... This is a book all lovers of the Sicilian (both White and Black) will thoroughly enjoy. It provides food for thought for many years to come."

Arne Moll, ChessVibes (full review)