There are at least a score of books available promising to help white score against the Sicilian, but Davies deserves credit for coming up with a somewhat original approach for the first player. While I doubt that a fianchetto method in the open Sicilian is the ultimate way to tame the Sicilian beast, it has its thematic points, and some players might find it just the tonic they need.

The book’s premise is that white can benefit in many lines from a kingside fianchetto in the open Sicilian. The author claims the fianchettoed bishop can overprotect the e4 pawn, contribute to the fight for d5, keep the e-file clear for pressure by a rook (especially after a Nd5 Nxd5 exd5 sequence), and help protect the kingside. That sounds like a lot for white to accomplish, and this is a system with a fair amount of venom. At the same time, black has plenty of structures with which to combat the set-up and a few where white has to accept the fact that he must look elsewhere because his standard approach will not work.

After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6/e6/Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 the book deals with black’s common setups by playing g3 followed by Bg2. While there are various plans available to white depending on the black set-up, they generally involve kingside castling followed by h3, g4 and a kingside attack. White may also shift his play to the queenside; often black expands in that area and is open to a counterattack by the first player.

It would be nice if this could be truly a “one scheme fits all” approach to the Sicilian; alas, there are lines where the kingside fianchetto is hard to achieve (or is not worth achieving). For example, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6/Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6/d6 6.g3 Bg4 7.f3 Bd7, white’s king bishop would look a little strange after 8.Bg2. In this line, white does better to quickly play g4. The resulting positions tend to have more the look of an English Attack (if black plays …e6) or early g4 lines of the Modern Dragon (if black plays …g6). While white can profit from the placement of the bishop on d7, the resulting positions are not particularly thematic with the typical white approach in this book.

The book begins with a short introduction. While many books targeted at the amateur audience use this space to introduce key concepts, themes, and examples, here the author basically provides a rationale for the book and a method for its study. Nigel Davies is an experienced player and trainer, and he has always struck me as an author who grasps the unique issues related to writing to this particular audience of chess players. While I would have preferred a bit more discussion of the variation’s key points, I do think the method for study and play of the variation will be helpful for many players (indeed, it is a useful program for the study of just about any book on an opening variation).

The bulk of the book (about 130 pages) is made up of 9 chapters, each dealing with a black defensive scheme. The chapters each typically run about 15 pages, and there is not really any one or two variation(s) that get the lion’s share of the coverage. The chapters are built around illustrative games; while I generally prefer the tree method for analyzing variations, the games approach can work, especially if there isn’t a lot of “hot” theory with a bunch of theoretical lines. While that may be an advantage of this fairly “solid” repertoire, beware that there are still some areas where the games approach misses key lines and move order tricks. For example, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nb5 d6 the author’s choice against the Sveshnikov is 7.Bg5 a6 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.Nz3 b5 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 Bg7 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Ne2 0-0 14.Nce3 Be6 15.g3, which allows white to consolidate his grip on the light squares and have some chances for an advantage. However, this line is often reached by transposition; if black eschews the pedestrian 13…0-0 and instead accelerates his counterplay against the outpost square with 13…Be6 14.Nce3 Ne7! it is much harder for white to achieve his desired set-up. Unfortunately, this possibility goes unmentioned here.

Lest one think that a player can get a “free pass” from learning Sicilian theory here, it should also be pointed out that the kingside fianchetto is a pretty popular white method in a couple of these variations. For example, the chapter on the Paulsen and Taimanov variations follows 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.g3 a6 7.Bg2 Nf6 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 Bc5 10.Bf4 d6 11.Qd2 h6 12.Rad1 e6 13.Be3 Bd6 14.Bxc5 dxc5 15.Nd5 we are still chugging along in standard theory with plenty of interesting alternatives. In fact, the game cited here carries that opening theory to move 20. In general, the author provides enough coverage to get a player started with this variation. However, there is a tendency to rattle off an alternate line (with little or no analysis) in cases where a black main line leads to equality. There are also some key black tries where the analysis doesn’t provide a very penetrating look at the ideas.

As an example, when I played the Najdorf for black my “preparation” for this line was a suggestion of GM King that after 6.g3 e5 7.Nde2 b5 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.0-0 Be7 10.h3 black restrain white’s natural kingside expansion with 10…h5!? King wrote (in 1993’s WINNING WITH THE NAJDORF) that “another possibility is 10…h5!?, radically preventing g4, and thus leaving the knight on e2 without a decent square. So far no one has had the courage to play the move, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. We have already seen in many Najdorf games how irritating this pawn’s advance can be for White.” Now, 9 years later, Davies says of the suggestion “In a similar position [it’s actually the same position] Daniel King has proposed 10…h5!?, which restrains g3-g4 and asks where White’s knight on e2 plans to go. On the other hand it is difficult to believe that this gratuitous weakening of black’s kingside can be good. Tests are needed to determine its merit.”

Perhaps it really doesn’t bear deeper scrutiny, but Davies doesn’t exactly break into a sweat analyzing it. Consider that elsewhere in the chapter, black does ok with another use of …h5: in Chiburdanidze-Zaichik, Polanca Zdroj 1984, after 10…Be7 11.g4 b4 12.Nd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 h5!? 14.Ng3 hxg4 15.hxg4 g6 16.a3 a5 white didn’t achieve much after 17.Qd2 (Davies says this is artificial and recommends 17.Be3 but provides no further analysis or assessment) Ba6 18.Re1 b3 19.Ne4 bxc2 20.Qxc2 Rc8 21.Qd1 when Davies points out that 21…Nc5 would be reasonable.

I do think that Davies has put some thought into what the overall framework of the repertoire should look like, and some of his choices do limit the things the player has to learn, especially in some of the unusual black sidelines. I was interested by his suggestion that white avoid the oft-quoted mainline against the O’Kelly Sicilian – after 2.Nf3 a6 3.c4 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Davies says that black can get “very reasonable play” after 5…e5 6.Nf5 d6 7.Nc3 g6 8.Ne3 Bg7 followed by …Nge7 and …0-0. While this black idea is not covered in Nunn and Gallagher’s BEATING THE SICILIAN it is mentioned in Lutes’ SICILIAN DEFENSE O’KELLY VARIATION.” He mentions that Suetin suggested 9.Ned5! but gives no further analysis. I assume that the plan would involve 10.Be3 with threats to penetrate the dark squares via b6. Instead, Davies suggests that white simply play 3.Nc3. He also recommends this approach against 2…e6, which allows the white player to avoid some tricky lines, such as 2…e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.e5. As the author correctly notes, “Some players specialize in lines like this and know of many wrinkles that have been neglected by mainstream theory. In my opinion it is not a practical proposition to take them on in their own back yards.” He is absolutely correct.

The book concludes with an index of variations and an index of complete games. For those familiar with the Everyman Chess format, the introductions and summaries at the end of each chapter are useful but not real detailed, the printing and diagrams are good with overall strong production values. Some have noted a strong glue odor in other Everyman Chess books; that is not the case with this book. Perhaps the publisher has made a switch in this area.

In conclusion, the author should be lauded for penning an original work on a white approach against the Sicilian that has been neglected (until now) by recent theoretical works. The repertoire it develops is sound and has some common ideas that the average tournament and club player should be able to grasp with a bit of work. There are, however, lines where the standard set-up will be ineffective and other areas where the standard set-up strays dangerously close to “hot theory.” Some players may find that the repertoire as a whole presents too many challenges in that respect. On the other hand, the author provides a number of useful theory-limiting move orders, and many players might find that picking and choosing a few of the variations as opposed to the whole repertoire is their best bet. In short, this is a reasonable effort that should bear at least some reward for players looking for something a little different against the Sicilian.

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