Starting Out Sicilian Scheveningen

STARTING OUT: SICILIAN SCHEVENINGEN
Author: Craig Pritchett
$23.95
192 pages
Everyman Chess (2006, www.everymanchess.com)

Reviewed by John Donaldson

The Everyman Chess STARTING OUT series has a new book on a variation in the Sicilian that doesn't have much coverage elsewhere, in fact one of the best books on it was written by the same author almost thirty years ago! STARTING OUT: SICILIAN SCHEVENINGEN by the Scottish IM Craig Pritchett covers the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6. This very topical line, that after 6.Be2 can often transpose from Najdorf or Taimanov move-orders, could easily take up 500 pages so Pritchett wisely limits himself to examining what he feels are the best and most relevant lines for Black.

This translates to 6...h6 versus the Keres Attack, and lines with 9...Bd7 against 6.Be2, but no lines with ...Nbd7 or systems with ...e5. The English Attack, something that didn't exist when Pritchett did his first book on the Scheveningen, gets almost twenty pages. The positional 6.g3, which is not so popular these days, gets only a few pages.

STARTING OUT: SICILIAN SCHEVENINGEN, which is very much written from Black's point of view, uses 46 well-annotated games to teach this flexible and time honored system. The repertoire that Pritchett proposes is not one that will collapse as a result of one or two strong novelties. Players from 1800-2200 can use it as a stand-alone guide, those 2200 on up as a very useful starting point.

Highly Recommended

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