The Complete Sveshnikov Sicilian

Rating:
Summary: The best sveshnikov sicilian book so far
Review: Since sveshnikov sicilian wass played by Kasparov, Kramnik, Leko and other players in high-level tournaments, Its popularity has raised the number of book titles based on this sharp opening. People like me are beginning to get bored with the same type of presentation in these books over the past few years.
Fortunately, this book is a bit different. The author managed to present the point of each variation in a comprehensive manner, suitable for intermediate and advanced players. You will see a lot of helpful comments in this book explaining black's problems in most of variations. He is not shy of his opinion either. He boldly stated the positional 9.Nd5 could not present a significant advantage for white compared with the 9.Bxf6 variation. A statement which I tend to agree with him. The discussion on piece sacrifice variations show that white's chance is not worse, a fact that is not often mentioned in other sveshnikov sicilian books.
On the negative side, Some critical variations are not lengthy enough, the author seems to concentrate on popular variations. It may not be the book for beginners to play sveshnikov sicilian, but it is recommended for those who want to study it further with some basic knowledges.

Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: This is a very good book, written by a GM who has played the defence for years. Compared to Aagaard's work on the Sveshnikov, Yakovich provides more variations and obviously knows a great deal more about this variation of the Sicilian than does Aagaard. On the other hand the latter does a better job explaining basic ideas for white and black.
Excellent books on openings use that opening as a medium to teach about chess in general. The Sveshnikov variation is a fascinating learning tool because of the tension between pawn-structure and dynamic piece-play. Yakovich does not discuss this much and four stars is therefore enough.
If you are a medium rated player (above at least 1800) who have not played this variation before - buy Aagard first, then Yakovich.