Starting Out: The Sicilian

Rating:
Summary: Almost, but not quite
Review: After reading this book, I was left wanting much much more. Of course, the Sicilian is a massive complex of several different types of opening, and to attempt to cover it in such a limited number of pages was optimistic indeed. Emms does a good job of relating some basic ideas in the Sicilian, but cannot really cover anything in the depth required to begin playing an opening as dynamic and complex as this. Perhaps it was subjective, but I felt like there was less explanatory prose than in Gallagher's KID book from the same series. A more appropriate title would be "The Sicilian: an Appetizer." No one should start playing the Sicilian on the basis of what they will learn from this book alone. If one does, one can expect to be crushed by anyone who has done any real homework on these lines. White's development advantage and initiative really are quite dangerous. I am a 1. e4 diehard, and my easiest wins are always against players who attempt to play the Sicilian without really having studied it. I am not sure how much this book would help anyone over 1600 strength... better to just pick your variation and get a real book about it, or "start out" with Raetsky's _Meeting 1. e4_, with lines for Black against all the sidelines and the Four Knights Variation against the real stuff.

Rating:
Summary: From the basics to advanced chess theory and examples
Review: Expertly written by a renowned chess Grandmaster John Emms, Starting Out: The Sicilian is an instructively accessible guide to the art of the Sicilian defense. From the basics to advanced chess theory and examples, Starting Out: The Sicilian is illustrated with diagrams, move-by-move observations and insightful commentary, Starting Out: The Sicilian is an excellent and strongly recommended resource for any and all serious chess players seeking to better understand and improve at this popular pastime.

Rating:
Summary: This book delivers on its promise
Review: I am rated about 1500 USCF and I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the Sicilian. A brief look at each idea and 1-2 games to illustrate the points. Of course, I found that at times I wanted to delve deeper into the topic but then I closed the book, looked at the cover and re-read the title: "Starting Out: The Sicilian." An excellent title.

Rating:
Summary: This book delivers on its promise
Review: I am rated about 1500 USCF and I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the Sicilian. A brief look at each idea and 1-2 games to illustrate the points. Of course, I found that at times I wanted to delve deeper into the topic but then I closed the book, looked at the cover and re-read the title: "Starting Out: The Sicilian." An excellent title.

Rating:
Summary: Too little information
Review: I usually face the sicilian when playing e4. This book deals with all the basic ideas/responses against the sicilian. However sicilian is such a massive opening that it is impossible to cram everything in a 200 page book. Let us take the dragon variation for example, the author talks abt three main responses for white. The most popular being the Yugoslav attack, but in this variation Emms discusses only ONE main line and briefly mentions 2-3 subvariations. One look at the opening enclycopedia reveal the amount of complicated variations that can arise. Playing this would equivalant to walking into something that we think we knew and be surprised on the board. As they say little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Knowing ideas and plans are good, but not in a sharp opening like Dragon-Yugoslav or many other lines of the sicilian. So my point "This book is incomplete", and that is why not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great for a USCF 1200 through 1600 player!
Review: I'm a USCF 1600-1700 player, and I play the Sicilian as Black against 1. e4. To the frustration of my chess coach, I've memorized a great deal of Sicilian theory out to 15 moves. My chess coach's point is that the importance of learning openings at my level is to learn the ideas rather than the moves. The point of this book is to accomplish just that, and to keep the language down to 8th grade reading level. However, I'm still not 100% sure what the phrase "prise open the h-file" means -- maybe it's written for 8th grade in England.

This book does a fine job of giving you the ideas behind the Dragon, the Najdorf, the Scheveningen, the Sveshnikov, Bb5 systems, and c3 systems. More importantly for me, it fills in gaps in why moves that look perfectly good to me are not very good at all. An example of this is to explain how to "punish" 6. f3 in an Open Sicilian. Two sentences in the book left me with over an hour of thinking how novel the author's approach was.

The reason for marking the rating down to 4 stars lies in the 3 chapters of the book not mentioned above. The chapter on the "Classical" variation is lost on me. It's three variations are really sidelines of Najdorf or Scheveningen games. The biggest disappointment is in the chapter on "Other Systems" where the Accelerated Dragon is mentioned briefly. When contrasted with how well the three main ideas in the Dragon Variation are illustrated, it makes buying this book without another Sicilian reference a very dangerous prospect. In practice, I face the Accelerated Dragon very often, and you should NOT attempt a Yugoslav Attack against an Accelerated Dragon (that's why they call it Accelerated!!).

If you're a Sicilian fanatic or a wannabe you should buy this book as a "return to first principles" book. Non-Sicilian players who play 1. e4 and players who are USCF 1200-1600 should also be able to benefit.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to the Sicilian Defence
Review: John Emms is a fine author and I think this is a great book.

Suppose you are a novice at chess tournaments. One of the most enjoyable openings you can play is the White side of an Open Sicilian (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3, followed by 3 d4). The strategic ideas are clear and there are plenty of grandmaster games to use as examples. Your pawns fly down the board to open lines. And your challenge is to find the most efficient squares for your pieces. Some people want to avoid the Open Sicilian on the grounds that the lines are too complex. Don't be one of them! I think the lines are far tougher for Black than they are for White.

Emms starts by reminding us that if you play 1 e4, you'll see 1...c5 half the time.

There is one little problem with 2 Nf3 and 3 d4 of course. You just gave away your d-pawn for Black's c-pawn. As Emms warns us, if you don't play aggressively, you should lose.

This book should give you an idea of which lines you'll feel comfortable with as White.

The first system we see is the Dragon. Emms introduces the Yugoslav attack, the Classical Variation, the Levenfish attack, and 6 g3 (personally, I think that unless you play the Yugoslav or the Levenfish, you might as well not play an Open Sicilian). In the Yugoslav, as Fischer said and as Emms reminds us, you pry open the h-file (with your h-pawn) and then "sac, sac, mate!" And, of course, you trade your trashy queen bishop for Black's gorgeous Dragon Bishop. In the Yugoslav, Emms shows us 9 Bc4 and 0-0-0. You may also want to investigate 9 g4. I also like the Levenfish, which is very easy for White and very tricky for Black. In it, you blast away at Black's position with 7 e5.

The next chapter is on the Najdorf. What do you do with your Queen Bishop now? Emms shows us two popular ideas. In the Main Line (6 Bg5), that Bishop just gets in your way, so you save time by exchanging it for the Black Knight on f6. In this line, Emms covers 10 g4, but you may want to look at 10 Bd3 as well. The other option is 6 Be3, with the idea of an eventual Qd2. Before you decide to try this, play over the game Emms shows where Black plays 6...Ng4.

Chapter 3 is the Scheveningen, where you have several good choices: 6 g4 (the Keres attack), 6 Be3 (the English attack) and 6 Bc4 (the Fischer attack). I happen to prefer the latter, because I think it gives me the best chance of finding something useful for my Queen Bishop to do.

Next is the Sveshnikov. Here, Emms gives us the choice of 9 Bxf6 or 9 Nd5. 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 f5 is why I do not play the Sveshnikov for Black. I think 11 Bxb5 and even 11 Nxb5 are very dangerous for Black. But no matter what White plays, Emms explains that she has to figure out what to do about her pathetic horse on a3.

After that, the author introduces us to the Richter-Rauzer attack and the Sozin and Velimirovic attacks against the Classical Sicilian. The Velimirovic attack is especially fun to play for White. You castle queenside, play Rhg1, g4, g5, and mate Black with your major pieces.

That leaves us with five other Open Sicilians (Emms does not show us the O'Kelly variation, namely 2...a6, so just learn 3 c3 against it). They are the Taimanov (where 5 Nb5 is the most interesting), the Accelerated Dragon (where White's Queen Bishop is so classy that she may not even want to trade it for Black's dragon bishop), the Four Knights Sicilian (not popular for Black due to her isolated queen pawn), the Kan, and the Kalashnikov.

The Kan gives both sides great flexibility. This is an excellent choice for Black against a novice, as the best lines for White are slow and positional. If you are White, you simply have to learn how to play the Maroczy Bind against it.

The Kalashnikov is the only Sicilian system that I am willing to play as Black. Emms shows that both sides have plenty of options. Play is more positional than tactical. Again, White should play c4 with a Maroczy Bind, to prevent d5 by Black. And now it is Black who is trying to trade her worthless king bishop for White's Queen Bishop!

For those who want to play the Sicilian with Black (or who want to avoid 3 d4 with White), Emms concludes with the four best White alternatives: 3 Bb5, 2 c3, 2 Nc3, and 2 d4. By the way, I've actually seen people get into these via 1 Nc3 c5 2 e4 and even 1 c3? c5 2 e4.

I recommend this book. If you don't yet play the Open Sicilian with White, this book ought to add at least 100 points to your rating.


Rating:
Summary: Best introduction to the sicilian defence
Review: This is an INTRODUCTION to the sicilian, it will give you an overview of the basic plans in the most common lines. I think it is well written, and does not go too deeply into variations. My only complaints are twofold:

1: No index of variations

2: Ordering of systems. Dragon is first, Najdorf is second, c3 is nearly last. I think c3 should be first, because it is less theoretically sharp, but that's a quibble.

I recommend this book to everyone who is thinking of playing the sicilian or plays against it often. I'm a Caro-Kann player by heart, but I think some knowledge of the sicilian will help me as white when I play 1. e4 -- perhaps i'll even start playing something besides 2. c3 with a little bit of theoretical backing.