Batsford had been advertising this book as "arriving soon" for so long that I feared it would turn out to be a muddled mess, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Instead, this is a great book. It combines thorough research with good organization complimented by a decent mix of analysis and explanation. This is particularly amazing because it was the product of two authors working independently on the subject matter.

According to the Introduction, Viacheslav Osnos was responsible for the text "until a certain point" while Peter Wells updated the book "in the light of the – considerable '' body of recent practice. One might expect that this division of responsibility would lead to an uneven, choppy feel, but in fact the book flows nicely, and it is hard to discern where Osnos' work ends and Wells' efforts begin.

The Richter-Rauzer variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5, with other ways to reach this key position) is a key battleground in super-grandmaster play. You'll find Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuck, and Shirov among its proponents. For the average player, however, the Richter-Rauzer is also a reasonable choice.  For one thing, black's development is a little quicker than in the Najdorf, which takes a bit of the razor's edge out of the position. Black can, if he chooses, get developed pretty quickly and play for fairly solid positions. On the other hand, he can also choose to mix it up quickly. This creates a defense with a fair amount of flexibility for the black player.

Above all else, the Richter-Rauzer leads to rich play, which a variety of development schemes for both white and black. It is strategically and tactically complex. This combination makes the defense appealing, but it also makes it difficult to write a coherent "complete" book on the subject. There are a variety of paths available to both sides at many junctures, and, besides from the many available transpositions, it is often difficult to determine which is white or black's best method.

Given this set of circumstances, I would not have been surprised if this book had rambled or meandered a bit in places, but this is (thankfully!) not the case. The authors have laid out, at the beginning of the chapters, exactly what will be covered. They also provide a useful overview of the key options, and they are not afraid to suggest what they think are the critical lines for both sides. This greatly aids a player in zeroing in on the key lines.  At the same time, the authors provide plenty of alternate lines with many suggestions for new moves or ideas to try.

Peter Wells has written a number of good books of late, and he has a particular talent at presenting difficult material in a coherent manner that just about any level of player can follow. I suspect that he had a lot to do with refining the presentation of the material here. It reminds me in several places of his work on the Semi-Slav, another very popular opening with deep theory and a variety of alternatives for both sides.

This is truly a "complete" book that covers all lines for both sides. While Wells is a practitioner of this variation with black, I didn't find any real bias toward the second player in the book's evaluations. The converse, of course, is that a player will have to spend a bit of time working through more variations in a chapter to reach a conclusion about what they like or don't like from either side.

In conclusion, this is an excellent look at a popular line that hasn't been covered in book form of late. The authors present the material in a readable format and provide plenty of theory and explanation. If you're a fairly experienced Sicilian player, this would be an excellent book to learn either side of this variation.