Polugaevsky Najdorf Books

Are there any good recent treatments of the Polugaevsky Variation of the Najdorf, espcially from Black's perspective?  I can't find any full-length books, but do any other books offer a lengthy treatment of it?

Have you read Polugaevsky's own book on the birth of the variation?

It's a bit dated now, of course.

I’ve been meaning to, but haven’t. Thanks for the reminder. 

The book by Polugaevsky mentioned above is the classic, though it was written in 1981 (a considerably updated version of a 1977 Russian book) that was translated by Ken Neat. I might suggest the later second edition of this book, Grandmaster Achievement. It's still dated by now, but at least revised further, being published in 1994. I would update that from the Informant after that date or just researching games from databases after 1994. If you want to skip all that, there is a chapter on that variation in Chess Developments: Sicilian Najdorf 5 Bg5 by Kevin Goh Wei Ming that looks excellent. It was published in 2014 and he covers it through analysis of then-recent games. He thinks the variation is slightly dubious and risky but points out that his teammate and some other highly rated players play it with great success. He was unable to find a refutation to it, but says that variation "is rarely seen these days as it is now known to be a tad too risky and unnecessarily complicated even for Najdorf players". He devotes about 28 pages out of a 78 page chapter to this variation in the 394 page book. He analyzes in detail (with text) recent correspondence games and even a tournament game by Nakamura (from Biel 2012). I don't know of any other better or more complete treatment, other than maybe John Nunn's The Complete Najdorf: 6 Bg5, which has a couple chapters devoted to it. The only problem being that it is even more dated, having been published in 1996.

Thanks so much. I didn’t know about Grandmaster Achievement, but I’d always wanted to read P’s account of the variation’s genesis, and that sounds like a better way to do so.

Embarrassingly, I actually own the Ming but only in electronic form, which is why I forgot. Will definitely take a look.

You're welcome. I've always been interested in that variation too, but haven't yet studied it. I went through a search of 45 books on the Najdorf alone - looked through just about every relevant opening book (and others) that were ever published in English, plus foreign books. Here are the only other ones in English I found that seem to specialize in the Sicilian Polugaevsky variation:
(1) Sicilian Najdorf: Polugaevsky Variation by Jimmy Adams (the Chess Player, 1978)
(2) The Polugaevsky Variation of the Najdorf Defense by Salome and Bickford (copyright 1978, 1992, Syzygy Software)
(3) Sicilian: Polugaevsky Variation by J. Walton (Chess Enterpises, 1987/88)

They're all very dated, of course. It's hard to keep up with the flood of opening books the last few years, but I'm not aware of any recent ones solely on that variation.

Thanks — good to know about those too. I guess what I really need to do is sit down with some recent games. 

The other recent treatment I know of is Negi’s in volume 1 of e4 vs the Sicilian. He analyzes it to be tough for Black, but I’m curious whether any more recent games have found better.

I’ve always played the Poisoned Pawn instead, on the theory that if you’re going to play something crazy and book-heavy, it might as well be something that’s more clearly sound. But those lines get tedious after a while, and I’m curious enough about this one to give it a try.

 

 

Funny you just said that. I realized I had forgotten to check repertoire books and had just found the chapter you referred to in Book 1 of Negi's repertoire series for White and just saw your post as I was about to mention it. After a quick check, I didn't see much else on it or anything from Black's perspective in the Sicilian repertoire books.

I don't yet have Shaw's second volume covering the Sicilian, on his recent repertoire series
for White, so that may be worth checking into also.
It would probably be best to run Negi's recommendations through a strong computer program to come up with and try out alternative ideas for Black and try to develop your own repertoire.

Actually, don't bother with Shaw's book. Checking online, it turns out the Sicilian coverage ended up being his last (3rd) book I think, and the index shows he recommends 6 f3 for White against the Sicilian.

Against the Najdorf move order I mean.

Thanks for checking that 

I got temporarily intrigued and curious about that opening myself, so a bit more info I recently found on that variation I thought I'd pass along: The first thorough one-volume treatment of the Najdorf, the classic 1976 book by Geller, Gligoric, Kavalek and Spassky titled The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defence (published by the long defunct RHM Press), has a 40 page chapter devoted to the Polugayevsky Variation. Though older, it has a lot of games and analysis that should contribute to the understanding of the development of that variation.
The tournament book Sicilian Love (the Lev Polugaevsky Chess Tournament: Buenos Aires 1994) by Polugaevsky, Piket and Gueneau (New in Chess 1995) has a couple interesting P. V. games among P's 10 memorable games in the beginning of the book, including his demolition of Nezhmetdinov's 11 Ne4!? (after 7 f4 b5 8 e5 de5 9 fe5 Qc7 10 ef6 Qe5) in the Soviet Championship, Baku 1961. However, I didn't see any P. V. games in the actual tournament, even though they were all Sicilians. Most of the first half of the book contains a lengthy interview with Polugaevsky and an extensive account of the history of the Sicilian Defence. Not really much specifically on the P. V. other than the two games, but an interesting book nevertheless.
After the book by Ming mentioned previously, the Negi book you have seems to be the best recent analysis. Of the books listed in his bibliography on page 6, about half didn't consider or even mention the P. V.
Of the others (besides the Ming book which is also listed there), the best commentary and analyses on the P. V. (though not extensive, just a few pages) seemed to be in the books by Rizzitano and Palliser.

Thanks! I’ll check these out.