Alexander Khalifman, Sergei Soloviov: Squeezing the Sicilian - Alapin Variation

Chess Stars, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-619-7188-28-8, 456 Seiten, 2020.

Advance with d2-d4, build a solid pawn centre and then dictate the Play.

In the Alapin System White's strategic idea is extremely simple. He prepares to advance with d2-d4, to build a solid pawn centre and then dictate the play. He will have to pay for this with the fact that his queen's knight has been deprived of the best square for its development, but it may have other suitable squares (in many variations this will be not the d2-square but a3).

Secondly, it very often happens that after d4 cxd4 cxd4, White's queen's knight still gets access to its best square on c3. The modern evaluation of this system is that Black has comfortable enough lines in which he can obtain an acceptable game.

The authors try to prove that not all of these lines are equally good.

Alexander Khalifman is a GM and FIDE Senior Trainer, FIDE World Chess Champion in 1999. He won the Soviet Union Youth Championship (1982, 1984), the European Under-20 Championship (1985), the Russian Championship (1996). He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Chess Olympiads in 1992, 2000 and 2002, and at the 1997 World Team Chess Championship. Author of many books as Opening for White According to Anand, Opening for White According to Kramnik.

Sergei Soloviov is an IM, author of many books as Boris Spassky's 400 Selected Games, Leko's One Hundred Wins.

Content Download Khalifman, Soloviov: Squeezing the Sicilian - Alapin Variation (PDF)