The Classical Sicilian is one of Black's most popular and highly regarded opening choices against 1 e4, and it's been a favourite of such greats as Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov and Vishy Anand. White has a number of aggressive ways to battle against the Classical: the fashionable Richter-Rauzer Attack; Bobby Fischer's favourite, the Sozin Attack; and finally the wild Velimirovic Attack, and no work on the Classical would be complete without a study of these fascinating variations. In this book, Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik revisit the basics of the Classical Sicilian, elaborating on the crucial early moves and plans for both sides in a way that is often neglected in other texts.

The Everyman Chess Starting Out series has firmly established itself as the leading guide to studying openings for up-and-coming players. These books are distinguished by their easy-to-read layout, the lucid explanations of the fundamentals, and the abundance of notes, tips and warnings to help the reader absorb vital ideas.

• Written by Classical Sicilian Experts
• All the main lines are covered
• Ideal for improving players

Alexander Raetsky is a Russian Grandmaster and an experienced competitor on the chess tournament circuit. He's also a skilled writer and has been a frequent contributor to the famous Russian magazine 64 and the internationally renowned publication New in Chess. His first book for Everyman Chess, Meeting 1 e4, was very well received by reviewers and chess players alike.

Maxim Chetverik, also from Russia, is an International Master and a renowned opening theoretician. Earlier works for Everyman Chess include Starting Out: Queen's Gambit Accepted, which he co-authored with Raetsky.

Introduction

During the past hundred years the Classical Sicilian has been one of the most popular variations of the Sicilian Defence. Unlike systems like the Najdorf and the Dragon, Black even has a choice of ways to reach the Classical depending on per­sonal taste: both 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 d6, which we've adopted as our standard move order, and 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 occur roughly the same number of times in our database.

The Classical Sicilian was brought into use in the second half of the Nineteenth Century by Louis Paulsen; a highly original player who was even happy to meet 6 Be2 with the modern and anti-positional 6...e5. By the 1920s the future World Champion Max Euwe could be found at the forefront of developments in the Classical: the Dutchman might have usually met 6 Be2 with 6...e6, transposing to the Scheveningen, but he introduced many important ideas against the aggressive 6Bc4.

Nowadays a number of very strong players make good use of the Classical Sicil­ian, especially our compatriots Alexei Dreev and Vladimir Malakhov, the Ameri­can Alex Yermolinsky and the Greek Vasilios Kotronias, as well as the creative British grandmasters Jonathan Rowson and Peter Wells. However, for reasons of fashion the Classical isn't quite as popular in 2007 as it was in the mid-nineties, when it was regularly seen in the repertoire of no less a player than Vladimir Kramnik, but we are confident that the opening will shortly regain its previous popularity.

From the point of view of the clubplayer the attraction of the Classical Sicilian is clear: Black develops quickly and has good chances to develop early counterplay, while white players are often less well prepared than they are for the Najdorf and Sveshnikov. Our coverage begins with White's less common 6th move options (at grandmaster level at least), before examining Black's many options against both 6 Bc4 and the popular 6 Bg5, the critical Richter-Rauzer Attack. Thus we hope that black players will be able to construct a repertoire to suit them and this work should also be of interest to those who strive as White to create problems when­ever Black selects the Classical Sicilian.

We hope that you will enjoy our voyage into the fascinating world of the Classical Sicilian. Before that begins we must offer our special thanks both to those who helped with the translation and to Richard Palliser at Everyman Chess.

Alexander Raetsky & Maxim Chetverik

Voronezh July 2007

Content:
004 Bibliography

005 Introduction

007 Rare 6th Moves

023 The Boleslavsky: 6 Be2 e5

037 The Sharp 6 Bc4

068 The Sozin Attack

088 The Velimirovic Attack

108 6 Bg5: The Richter-Rauzer

119 The Traditional 6. ..e6 7 Qd2 Be7

144 The Modern 7. ..a6

170 Indes of Variations

175 Index of Complete Games