THE EASIEST SICILIAN
Author: Atanas Kolev and Trajko Nedev
Chess Stars Publishing (2008)
240 pages
$29.95

Reviewed by Anthony Rotella

I own a lot of chess books. With that said, I have to admit until relatively recently I hadn’t really heard of Chess Stars Publishing. To be more specific, I had never connected such strong books as the OPENING FOR WHITE ACCORDING TO ANAND series or Sakaev’s AN EXPERT GUIDE TO THE 7.Bc4 GRUNFELD with Chess Stars Publishing. Now that I have, I will certainly be on the lookout for whatever these guys decide to do in the future! It appears to me that their books are well researched, and worked on diligently until a strong product is released. Another point is that all the books I’ve seen by them cater to a higher rated audience than most chess books. It seems as though they’re shunning the “We’re gonna dumb the content down until we reach every player” school of thought (which in my opinion rarely works anyway), and they’re concentrating on writing strong material and filling a gap. Who else has written nearly 450 pages on the Ruy Lopez with 3…a6?

Anyway, THE EASIEST SICILIAN is the third book in a series of books exploring popular variations of the Sicilian Defense. The other two are THE SAFEST SICILIAN, covering the Dragon (just kidding of course, it’s actually the Taimanov), and THE SHARPEST SICILIAN (Najdorf Variation). Now you might be asking yourself, which one is the easiest? The Accelerated Dragon? The Kan? Well … no. It turns out, according to Atanas Kolev and Trajko Nedev, that it’s actually the Sveshnikov. “WHAT!?” you say. Yeah, well it actually makes a fair bit of sense when you boil it down. The Sveshnikov has very few pawn structures to worry about, and Black either plays on the kingside and the center with …f5, or on the queenside with …b4, and a lot of the opening revolves around a single square in the center, the d5 square. That’s really about it. You can also expect to see the same variations over and over again. For instance, I play the Dragon (probably not after this book!), and I have to worry about 9.g4, 9.0-0-0, and 9.Bc4 in the Yugoslav Attack, the Sozin, the Classical, the Fianchetto, and the Levenfish. In the Sveshnikov, you really only have 9.Bxf6, 9.Nd5, and 7.Nd5, with 9.Nd5 being overwhelmingly popular as of late.

Now for the actual reviewing part. The best thing about this book in my opinion is the format (not that the content isn’t top notch). It follows the same format as its two older brothers in that it divides each variation’s chapter into three separate smaller chapters. The first chapter is called “Quick Repertoire”. This chapter shows you the main lines, and a couple deviations, as well as giving you solid advice on important positional and tactical points pertinent to the line in question. The second chapter is called “Step by Step”, and is similar to what you’d see in any other opening book. It’s just an expanded and deeper chapter in tree format on all the lines in the variation. The third chapter is a few complete games with some annotations to provide you with a feel as to how the game might proceed. This is an amazing format in my opinion. It allows the reader to see the important lines 3 times, while giving them a solid theoretical background, and a strong understanding of the typical plans, ideas, and endings.

The book itself is 240 pages, and dishes out about 50 pages to 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, 3.c3, and 3.Nc3. They recommend the interesting 3.Bb5 Nf6!?, and come up with some new ideas here to inject black’s position with a little bit more energy. There are nice novelties in other chapters as well, improving upon Shirov’s play in his game vs. Anand in Linares 2008, and suggesting a nice improvement over Karjakin’s 20.Qe2!? in a similar line (Once again against Shirov – his loss is our gain!). The authors’ thorough treatment of the “Positional Line” is refreshing, and much needed, since today that’s the line that worries some people out of playing this opening, for fear of being ground down in some boring fashion. They do a great job of showing how these lines should be handled, and have a great habit of recommending the most principled and aggressive possibilities for the black side. All the illustrative games are quite recent, with the theory current as of April 2008, which is certainly needed, since the last great book written on the Sveshnikov, THE SVESHNIKOV RELOADED, was written in 2005, and really can’t be called recent anymore.

This book’s a 10. Great format, great content, very interesting opening. After working my way through this book, not only have I already scored some nice wins, but I’m really enjoying the opening as well, which is what it’s all about anyway. Kudos to the authors and Chess Stars Publishing.

Click to buy (or get more information about) THE EASIEST SICILIAN

Other books mentioned by the reviewer:

THE SAFEST SICILIAN

THE SHARPEST SICILIAN

SVESHNIKOV RELOADED