Throughout my career, I’ve always been an Accelerated Dragon man. True, I have also tasted the fruits of the Caro-Kann from time to time, but the Accelerated has been a constant companion since my early teens. Often, this was a lonely stance, since my chess hero, Fischer, played the Najdorf, and as the years passed, everyone else seemed to jump on the same Najdorf-bandwagon. Today, Kasparov, Anand, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Topalov, Svidler, and just about every other top-ranked player has embraced this dynamic opening system.

In the introduction to this new book, Grandmaster Kosten tells the following story: “We (Polugaevsky, Gavrikov, and Kosten) were finalizing details for a new pedagogical magazine, which would bear the great Sicilian specialist’s name. Gavrikov was to deal with opening theory, but he was adamant that he was only interested in covering ‘sound’ openings. When pressed about this, he said that against 1.e4, that would be 1…e5 and the Najdorf Sicilian—nothing else!”

This story made me a bit sad. I’ve suffered through years and years of Accelerated Dragon and Caro-Kann games; trying to make difficult lines playable, struggling for dry equality (and getting excited when I found it)—almost alone, ignored; only IM John Donaldson stood by me while we screamed: “We want to draw! We want to draw!”

Najdorf players, on the other hand, clearly want to win as Black. Indeed, they often succeed with incredible ease. So why did I refuse to make use of this extremely effective opening? The answer is rather simple: there was simply too much to memorize! Also, the lines were often so sharp that the slightest improvement on White’s part (or the smallest crack in Black’s memory) could turn an acceptable variation into a quick, humiliating defeat.

I’ve listed this book’s audience at 1900 on up. The reason for this is that I have never believed that amateur’s in the C (1400-1599) and B (1600-1799) ranks should play systems based on a vast amount of published theory. Many disagree, though, so don’t let my personal opinion spoil your joy of the Najdorf if you have already incorporated it into your repertoire.

During the last few years, we’ve seen some very fine Najdorf books appear in print. Danny King’s Winning With the Najdorf (Batsford, 1993) was quite good, while Dr. Nunn’s two book set (The Complete Najdorf: Modern Lines [Batsford, 1998] and The Complete Najdorf: 6.Bg5 [Batsford, 1996]), spanning 650 pages, is this opening’s ultimate guide.

This new Najdorf volume, though, is my favorite for several reasons:

First: Tony Kosten is one of my favorite authors. His enjoyable writing style and down to earth explanations can be found in virtually everything he does.

Second: the book appeals on an emotional basis, with Kosten making a compelling argument about its effectiveness (if you can’t be emotionally involved with the opening you play, then why bother?).

Third: Kosten has laid the book out in a logical manner, making the necessary mass of variations almost (gasp!) user friendly.

Fourth: Kosten has tried to simplify the amount of work the student has to do by giving a nice talk on strategic ideas in the introduction and at the beginning of every chapter. He has also noted transpositions and has only recommended lines that keep the student’s need to memorize to a minimum.

My favorite moment came in the chapter on 6.Bg5, a move whose complexity kept me from ever attempting this opening. His recommended 6…e6 7.f4 Nc6 (usually the Knight was eventually placed on d7, and 7…Qb6 or 7…Be7 are the main lines) was, for me, a virtual bolt from the blue (okay, I freely admit to being years and years behind in theory). The idea is to step into a favorable Richter-Rauzer, and since I’ve played the R-R on and off over the years, it seemed so obvious and simple that I immediately wanted to take up the Najdorf and throw all my other openings out the window! This shortcut, though, could also turn out to be a flaw if 7…Nc6 is found to be wanting. However, I can’t imagine this being the case (unless White can make an early e4-e5 work) since transposition into a Richter-Rauzer makes so much sense.

So what’s the catch? Well, there’s only one: If your memory has melted with age (I can’t tell you how many brain cells I’ve left laying on the road of youth), then you’re in for a bumpy ride! Here’s a typical Najdorf example: On page 87 Black plays 17…f6! and Kosten says, “Gelfand’s innovation…”

This tells us that new moves are very common that late in the game, and often appear even later. So if you can’t retain a lot of information, perhaps the Caro-Kann is the opening for you after all (in other words, an opening that let’s you get by with understanding rather than copious amounts of memorization).

Overall, I would buy this book in an instant if I was a Najdorf player. It’s another excellent effort by Kosten.

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