Anti-Sicilians: A Guide for Black

Rating:
Summary: A comprehensive repertoire for strong players
Review: A few months ago, a book titled "Meeting 1e4" was released. This book presents a neat repertoire for black to face anti-sicilian openings. Now Dorian Rogozenko, an active figure at chessbase online site, tries to present a more comprehensive anti-sicilian repertoire for sicilian players. There are some weak and strong points about this book. First, unlike "Meeting with 1.e4" which only discusses anti-sicilian with move order of 1...c5 2...Nc6, Rogozenko covers the needs of 1...c5 2...d6 or 1...c5 2...e6 players. Najdorf players can rejoice to see the discussion about the annoying 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ line and other relevant lines.

Overall, there are five main topics covered in this book: Grand Prix attack, Closed Sicilian, Sicilian c3, 3.Bb5(+) lines and Misc lines. Based on how dangerous an anti-sicilian line is, the proportion of topics seems very balanced. The discussion is presented in "tree-variation format" which is better than "games-format" for an opening repertoire book. Solid mainlines are Rogozenko's choice in this book, for example he recommends 3 ..g6 against Sicilian Rossolimo. We will see later that Rogezenko's approach is a double edged sword.

It is fascinating to see that the book covers 1.e4 c5 2.d3/b3/g3/etc lines or 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4, it gives the impression that sicilian beginners will benefit a lot from here. But unfortunately this is not 100% true for a reason. The lines recommended in this book are the main lines of the variations and thus very heavy in theory. Another weak point is the analysis, quite often the recommended lines end with minimal annotations like "Black has equal chances", while the final positions demand more explanations for beginner or intermediate players. Even veteran sicilian players will need to spend a lot of time to evaluate these positions. To his credit, He tries to turn left or right in the middle of the mainlines, for example in the closed sicilian he prefers to play 9...b6 than the popular 9...Nd4. Whether these deviation lines are fresh enough, I will let you to judge them.

In conclusion, if you are a strong player and plays sicilian, get this excellent book. If you are an intermediate/beginner player, you may get learn something, however it will be frustrating to play the recommended line and does not how to proceed from the final position due to the lack of explanations. I recommend beginner/intermediate players to buy "Meeting 1e4" by Alexander Raetsky instead.

This book deserves four stars if you are a strong player.

Rating:
Summary: A comprehensive repertoire for strong players
Review: A few months ago, a book titled "Meeting 1e4" was released. This book presents a neat repertoire for black to face anti-sicilian openings. Now Dorian Rogozenko, an active figure at chessbase online site, tries to present a more comprehensive anti-sicilian repertoire for sicilian players. There are some weak and strong points about this book. First, unlike "Meeting with 1.e4" which only discusses anti-sicilian with move order of 1...c5 2...Nc6, Rogozenko covers the needs of 1...c5 2...d6 or 1...c5 2...e6 players. Najdorf players can rejoice to see the discussion about the annoying 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ line and other relevant lines.

Overall, there are five main topics covered in this book: Grand Prix attack, Closed Sicilian, Sicilian c3, 3.Bb5(+) lines and Misc lines. Based on how dangerous an anti-sicilian line is, the proportion of topics seems very balanced. The discussion is presented in "tree-variation format" which is better than "games-format" for an opening repertoire book. Solid mainlines are Rogozenko's choice in this book, for example he recommends 3 ..g6 against Sicilian Rossolimo. We will see later that Rogezenko's approach is a double edged sword.

It is fascinating to see that the book covers 1.e4 c5 2.d3/b3/g3/etc lines or 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4, it gives the impression that sicilian beginners will benefit a lot from here. But unfortunately this is not 100% true for a reason. The lines recommended in this book are the main lines of the variations and thus very heavy in theory. Another weak point is the analysis, quite often the recommended lines end with minimal annotations like "Black has equal chances", while the final positions demand more explanations for beginner or intermediate players. Even veteran sicilian players will need to spend a lot of time to evaluate these positions. To his credit, He tries to turn left or right in the middle of the mainlines, for example in the closed sicilian he prefers to play 9...b6 than the popular 9...Nd4. Whether these deviation lines are fresh enough, I will let you to judge them.

In conclusion, if you are a strong player and plays sicilian, get this excellent book. If you are an intermediate/beginner player, you may get learn something, however it will be frustrating to play the recommended line and does not how to proceed from the final position due to the lack of explanations. I recommend beginner/intermediate players to buy "Meeting 1e4" by Alexander Raetsky instead.

This book deserves four stars if you are a strong player.

Rating:
Summary: Dorian Rogozenko: Please keep writing more books!
Review: I think its clear by now that if you are a serious chess player, then gambit books are the books for you. I've had nothing but laughs at everymans.

To the book review:

This book is excellent for its theoretical content. The variations are all relevant, and detailed. Basically he went through all the anti sicilian lines in NCO and tries to improve for black, or gives better details.

Too bad the other review said this book is not for beginners, well it is. The reason is because the analysis is dead on and gives you the best lines. Dont expect to play the sicilian without memorizing, that is if you want to play it with success.

Rating:
Summary: If you play the Sicilian, you should get this
Review: Rogozenko gives online lectures all the time. He understands how most club-level players think better than most GMs. But this book is not a simple, low-level book full of tips. Rogo is a grandmaster that has worked hard on the Sicilian throughout his career. He shares his insights along with a lot of computer assisted analysis to make sure it holds up. Again, this is not simply theory. It is a recommended repertoire for black whenever white avoids the open sicilian.

This book often gives you multiple lines against the most common anti-sicilian systems. You can play solid and safe or risk more for winning chances.

If you play the Sicilian you know that many, many white players avoid the open Sicilian so they don't need to learn the white side of the Najdorf and Dragon and scheveningen, etc. Few books have addressed all anti-sicilians from the black point-of-view and those that have are years and years out-of-date with comtemporary opening theory.

This is simply a must-have for all serious chess students that want to play the Sicilian in tournaments. You simply HAVE to know a line against the Smith-Morra, Bb5 lines, c3 Sicilian, etc.
You cannot just study the Najdorf or the Dragon and not really know what to do when white plays something other than Nf3, d4, and Nxd4.

Unless you are below 1200 or above 2550 than this book is perfect. Its is an up-to-date manual written from a current tournament GM (i.e. these ideas WILL be played against him).
Buy it if you play the Sicilian (the most popular defense against e4).