Easy Guide to the Najdorf, Tony Kosten - download book

   The 'Najdorf' was originally played by Karel Opocensky and other Czech masters, and was taken up by Moishe Mieczslaw (later Miguel) Najdorf in the late 1940s, and, because of his successes, the opening took his name. The idea of this little move 5...a6 is to control the b5-square, so that Black might be able to play ...e5, driving away the advanced white knight on d4 and gaining greater central influence, much as in the Boleslavsky Sicilian. The immediate 5...e5 is possible, but after 6 Bb5+ Bd7 7 Bxd7+ Qxd7 the move 8 Nf5 is strong. Therefore, in the Najdorf, by avoiding the exchange of light-squared bishops, Black maintains control of his light squares, in particular f5 and d5.

   Other strong players soon recognized the strength of this variation, and it quickly became one of Black's most fashionable defences. During the 1960s it was popularized by Fischer, and nowadays it is possibly the most fashionable 'defence' to 1 e4 at the highest level, being played by Gelfand, Anand, Shirov, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Svidler, amongst others.


   Without going into great detail here, specific strategic ideas are often limited to a particular type of position, and in modern chess less is made of general rules and more of the concrete appraisal of each position's peculiarities. In other words, you will have to learn your theory! Nonetheless there are themes that run throughout the book.

Author: Tony Kosten
Title: "Easy Guide to the Najdorf"
Released: 1999
Format: rar/pdf
Quality: good
Number of pages: 169
Size: 7 Mb