Preface

Dear readers,

You are holding in your hands book 12 of the series "Opening for White According to Anand - 1.e4". It is devoted to one of the main lines of the Sicilian Defence, beginning with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6. Strangely enough, this system has not acquired yet a universally acknowledged name. It is worth mentioning that the scheme, which we recommend against the majority of the other Sicilian variations in our books, the set-up Be3-f3-Qd2 would not work against this system, because of quite concrete reasons. After 6.Be3 Ng4, as well as in case of 6.f3 e5, Black solves his opening problems rather easily.

Meanwhile, after the move we recommend - 6.Bg5, quite irrevocably accepted by contemporary theory as the most dangerous for Black, there would be no more terminological ambiguities - the Rauzer Attack is on the board. This famous theoretician laid down the foundations of the contemporary treatment of this opening system back in the 30ies of the past century. We must also mention here Alexander Alekhine who played this system numerous times with White, although not against the best players at the time. Many opening variations, which are analyzed in this book, were tested at the highest level, up to the matches for the World Championship, already around the year 1950. The nameless opening system with 2...d6 and 5...Nc6 was considered quite deservedly to be the basic in the Sicilian defence and only later, around the change of the millennium, stepped aside as the most popular in favour of other more fashionable lines.

The majority of the arising variations are characterized by opposite sides castling, or in answer to White's castling long Black leaves his king in the centre. Naturally, this leads usually to fierce attacking and counter attacking and both sides must play very energetically including sacrificing material. In circumstances like this, when every move is of paramount importance, the exact knowledge of the opening theory is absolutely crucial.

In the first part of this book, we deal with numerous sidelines, beginning with Black's attempts to avoid the main lines as early as move three. These variations are not so principled in the majority of cases, nevertheless we felt we needed to analyze them. I believe the most interesting variation among them is 6.Bg5 g6. This attempt by Black to build the Dragon set-up has never enjoyed good reputation,

but strangely there never were exact analyses how to deal with it with White and Black had good practical results even at the master level. It seems to me that in this book I have given a thorough analysis proving that White can achieve a considerable advantage.

In the second part of the book we deal with variations arising in cases when after 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2, Black refrains from the almost obligatory move a7-a6 in most of the systems of the Sicilian Defence. This is due to his desire to evacuate his king away from the centre as quickly as possible with 7...Be7 8.0-0-0 0-0. It is worth mentioning that Anand preferred this set-up for Black, but that was mostly in the past millennium. White must play actively in these variations not only in the centre, but on the kingside as well. One of his important resources for this is the pawn-break e4-e5. The game is often forced in these cases and sometimes theory goes up to move thirty. The developments are not so much computer-oriented, as for example in the Dragon variation and you can find out numerous fine points even over the board. Still, I recommend to you to save time and energy and to become well familiar with the contemporary theoretical novelties.

The third part of the book is devoted to the variations beginning with 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6. They were considered for a long time to be the most reliable for Black and in particular the system with 8.0-0-0 h6. He managed to hold his ground even at the highest possible level. At the very end of the past century though, some games of the Israeli chess-players, in which the original idea of Jacob Murey 9.Nxc6!? bxc6 10.Bf4 was tested, reduced drastically the number of players who were willing to continue playing this system with Black. This verdict has stood until today. Both sides have numerous interesting tactical possibilities, but White's trumps are quite convincing. Presently, Black's main lines are considered to be 8...Be7 and 8...Bd7, but his opponent is better in both cases. This would be particularly true if the White players have read this book...

A.Khalifman

14th World Chess Champion

Content:

006 Preface

Part 1 Miscellaneous / 1 .e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4

009 1 various; 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 without 4...Nf6

026 2 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 various

037 3 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 without 6...Bd7 & 6...e6

055 4 3...cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 Bd7

Part 2 Rauzer Attack without a7-a6

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2

087 5 without 7...Qb6, 7...Be7 and 7...a6

103 6 7...Qb6

124 7 7.. .Be7 8.0-0-0 various; 8...0-0 9.f4 without 9...Nxd4

148 8 7...Be7 8.0-0-0 0-0 9.f4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 various;

10...Qa5 11.Bc4 without 11...Bd7

164 9 7...Be7 8.0-0-0 0-0 9.f4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Qa5 11.Bc4 Bd7

Part 3 Rauzer Attack with a7-a6

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0

187 10 various without 8...h6 and 8...Bd7

199 11 8...h6 9.Nxc6 bc 10.Bf4 d5

223 12 8...Bd7 9.f4 without 9...Be7 and 9...b5

243 13 8...Bd7 9.f4 Be7

267 14 8...Bd7 9.f4 b5

281 Index of Variations