Alexander Khalifman: Opening for white according to Anand 12

Chess Stars, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-9-548782-72-2, 284 Seiten, 2009.

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.

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.

A.Khalifman
14th World Chess Champion