Sicilian Taimanov

Rating:
Summary: A Flop
Review: Compared to other Sicilians, the Taimanov is relatively slow-developing, giving White few immediate targets. At the same time, it is a flexible system, and depending on the move order can readily transpose to the Scheveningen or Sveshnikov Sicilians. I had hoped for some detailed discussions of the concepts behind the opening, as well as explanation of move orders and transpositions. On both fronts I was disappointed. This book is skimpy in verbal explanations, and even the annotations and analysis are pretty bare-bones. There isn't a master index of variations. A major disappointment overall. If you're interested in the Taimanov, a better bet would be Graham Burgess' recent book. It's not that great on verbal explanations either, but gets top marks on the technical side.

Rating:
Summary: The Sicilian Taimanov
Review: I must say that I was quite disappointed after buying the book. The book was written by GM Plaskett of England. He covers most of the important variations of the Taimanov with some games from top level grandmaster play in the 90s. There are 10 chapters followed by a summary of variations. There is a decent amount of verbal commentary in each of the games however one of my pet peeves was the dearth of analysis of any of the games. I think this is a good book if you are at least expert strength and are a regular Taimanov player. However, i think this book must be supplemented by another opening text. I am not sure if there is that much more material here that is useful than can already be found in MCO or NCO.

Rating:
Summary: The Sicilian Taimanov
Review: I must say that I was quite disappointed after buying the book. The book was written by GM Plaskett of England. He covers most of the important variations of the Taimanov with some games from top level grandmaster play in the 90s. There are 10 chapters followed by a summary of variations. There is a decent amount of verbal commentary in each of the games however one of my pet peeves was the dearth of analysis of any of the games. I think this is a good book if you are at least expert strength and are a regular Taimanov player. However, i think this book must be supplemented by another opening text. I am not sure if there is that much more material here that is useful than can already be found in MCO or NCO.