Video Guide: Shankland Teaches the Najdorf

This is a quick guide to a video series. For other video series, go here.

In this series we will break learning one of the most complicated and theoretically sound responses to 1.e4, the Najdorf Variation, into digestible parts. The entire series is appropriate for advanced players only.

The Najdorf has been a longtime favorite of many of the greatest players of all time, including but not limited to Kasparov, Fischer, Anand, and Topalov. The first 2 videos are dedicated to one of the old lines, the Fischer-Sozin Variation, which starts with 6. Bc4. The next 2 cover the English attack, which has phased in and out of popularity over the last 30 years and is certainly one of white's critical tests. The following one digresses into a slightly less topical but certainly dangerous move in 6. f4. Numbers 6 and 7 are dedicated to the wild 6. Bg5, which has been all the rage for the last few years, and finally it is wrapped up by videos 8 and 9 which cover some of the more positional approaches of 6. Be2 and 6. h3, the former rapidly gaining popularity and the latter having recently phased out of style. Hopefully with a complete study of all of these videos, the viewer will feel confident in his ability to play the Najdorf and enter the middlegame with a decent position.