John Emms’ STARTING OUT: THE SICILIAN achieves the remarkable feat of presenting the entire Sicilian Defense for both sides in 174 pages! Amazingly, he does it very well, not even skimping on the Bb5 systems (10 pages), the c3 Sicilian, or even the Morra Gambit (2 illustrative games)! Of course some lesser lines are just omitted, but this is nevertheless a remarkable achievement, and Emms makes it readable throughout.

Obviously you have to look elsewhere for any degree of detail. One might compare this, for example with Emms’ recent work SICILIAN KAN (click HERE to see Donaldson’s review of this book); that covers just one Sicilian variation (of intermediate importance at that) in 192 pages! As an old Taimanov/Kan player, I like the latter book, a detailed and competent effort that is of the “complete” variety made for a more advanced player. But it stands in stark contrast to the philosophy of STARTING OUT: THE SICILIAN, which is to familiarize the reader with the broader outlines of a major opening and its many variations, not to teach one specifically how to play those variations.

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