Modernized: The Open Sicilian

Does anybody know anything about the book "Modernized: The Open Sicilian" by Amanov and Kavutskiy? There doesn't seem to be many websites that review chess books these days and I was wondering if this book would be suitable for someone in the 1900 USCF rating range. I like books that have a lot of explanations and not just a bunch of lines. I know the Open Sicilian is theoretical in general, but I thought I would give it a try after playing anti Sicilians for several years. I'm hoping this book might be a good guide to tackle to Open Sicilian. Also, if anybody knows of any other books that might be a good guide for the Open Sicilian that would be appreciated as well.

Check out John Bartholomew's review on his youtube page. As for forums, it's been discussed on chesspub quite a bit, and one of the authors even joined in on the first thread discussing it. Anyhow, to sum up the reviews I've read, many consider it a very, very good book.

Thankyou for your reply. That video review was especially insightful. The book appears to have a lot of explanations which is nice, especially when dealing with such a complicated opening. The book looks promising so I have a copy on the way.

Excellent!

I own it...its a very nice book but unfortunately I don't play 1.e4 as much anymore.  If you'd be interested in buying it from me, send me a message, I'd sell it for cheap.  If you're interested in the variations it advocates, let me know!  

EDIT:  Just saw you already purchased it.  You will enjoy it!  Good luck. 

Is your copy on Ebay?

Not currently but if someone was interested and wanted the safety net of ebay, I would be willing to list it.  

Check your messages, amico

So I have received my copy of the book and I really like it so far. Now that I've started my adventure in the open Sicilian though I'm curious about certain move orders. In particular I'm curious about black playing both Nc6 and d6 early. It seems that many Sicilians branch out from either d6 or Nc6 (or e6) on move two, but is it a thing to play something like d6 on move two and after 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 play 4...Nc6 immediately or Nc6 first and than d6? Maybe people do this (I honestly don't know since I've never played or studied the Open Sicilian until now), but it seems uncommon to me since I haven't heard about it at all. I'm wondering is it uncommon because by black ommiting Nf6 white can play c4? If so why is this version worse than allowing the Maroczy Bind in other lines such as the Taimanov or Accelerated Dragon?

I am far from being a Sicilian expert, but, for what it is worth, I suspect that this sort of thing is a rather complicated issue. An example of one small piece of the picture: after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4, 4 Qxd4 is somewhat better than it would be in the 2 ... Nc6 line. It might be that one could learn more about the reasons behind 2 ... d6, 2 ... Nc6, and 2 ... e6 by looking at Starting Out: The Sicilian by GM John Emms.

You are correct, the move orders c5/d6/cd/Nc6 or c5/Nc6/cd/d6 aren't played because they allow c4.  This is worse than the normal Acc Dragon lines because d6 has already been played...in some lines black strives to play d5 in one move.  And as a sidenote, the maroczy isn't quite as strong against Taimanov stuff anyway because black hasn't ceded control of the d5 square (as e6 has been played), so the bind itself isn't as much of a "bind."  

Cool that makes sense. Thanks for your reply!

Hey everyone, I appreciate the nice comments about the book! If anyone else has feedback about the book (or even Open Sicilian games they'd like to share), my inbox is open!
-Kostya