A Guide for White
The Taimanov Sicilian is a chess opening widely played at club level and a favourite of elite players like Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand and young star Anish Giri. Against this variation, the ever popular English Attack has long been considered harmless, until in recent years some remarkable improvements were found for White. By castling queenside White creates exciting positions in which he has a dangerous initiative.
Armenian grandmaster Zaven Andriasyan has thoroughly and systematically investigated this unexplored chess opening territory. He unveils the structures behind the various lines and explains the plans and counterplans.
Andriasyan also presents a wealth of highly interesting new ideas and novelties, and provides the reader with 50 exercises.
Amateur chess players will find the English Attack to be an easy-to-grasp and dangerous weapon. Players at (grand-)master level will be delighted by the amount of valuable new information they will find.
About the Author
Zaven Andriasyan (1989) was both European under-18 and World under-20 chess champion in 2006. He is currently one of the strongest grandmasters in Armenia. He is the author of the bestselling ‘Winning with the Najdorf Sicilian’ (2013).
Reviews
CHESS Magazine: “Still feels very modern, but is a system which has been around for a while now. The Armenian Grandmaster presents the ideas behind it.”
GM David Smerdon, Chess.com: “I find it particularly impressive that Andriasyan has done such a good job of covering [this variation] in what is quite a high-level product. The material is up to date and well analysed, adequately detailing (for the most part) critical sidelines and unplayed novelties as well as the more popular main lines (..) The explanation of the themes and motifs for both sides is definitely a huge plus.”
B.Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad: “Club players who have to play against this variation, or who wish to employ it themselves, receive systematic instruction, with fifty exercises (..) An excellent opening book.”