Themes In The Najdorf

can anyone suggest any good books on the white side of the Najdorf?  I'm fairly well booked up theoretically in both the English attack and the Bg5 mainline.  When the theory ends, however, I'm stuck in these tactical positions where I have no clue what to do.  I'm decent tactically but I have no idea where they're supposed to be! 

If anyone knows of any advanced book which covers the white side of the Najdorf, I'd love to hear about it!

thanks a million!

--matt

I am looking for the same thing matt.. najdorf from the white side.

hopefully someone will find one :)

At some point theory will always end and you are on your own. Well, if you find the positions too tactical, then don't play Sicilian! Anyway, to your question, I think that the 4 DVDs made by Kasparov should be quite a good resource :)

If you're already booked up, maybe the best way is to look for historical games in your chosen variations ?

Hm...

I like the idea given about studying many Najdorf games. Chessgames.com has plenty of games, and since both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov regularly employed the Najdorf, you can be certain of obtaining some excellent games for your study.

Honestly, the Bg5 variation is pretty much refuted, unless you're playing for a draw against a much higher-rated opponent. This is because of the Poisoned Pawn Variation (which is analyzed to be a draw).

As for the theory to it, white is supposed to castle queenside while black castles kingside, leading to both sides pushing pawns toward the opponent's king and performing a kingside attack where the contest of being the first to checkmate begins.

Not that what I just said was a very good answer, though. So... A book I would recommend is "Starting Out: The Sicilian Najdorf" which is part of the Starting Out series. The name suggests that it might not be a very advanced book (the "Starting Out" part especially) but it annotates many games with the Najdorf while highlighting many parts of the games which are typical in Najdorf positions.

At the end of the book moves, though, it becomes more like "Chess Theory" than simply "Opening Theory" so trying to learn what to do throughout the entire game isn't really something that the "opening" instruction can do. Hence the "opening" title.

In general though, both sides are supposed to play aggressively in the Sicilian. Pawn storms, wild attacks, paying any price for the scalp of the enemy king, etc.

Sicilians are supposed to have only a middlegame and an opening. The aggression in them means that they should not reach an endgame. If they do, then it's fine, but really pieces shouldn't be traded off until the attacking subsides. Calm positional play is out of the question. Developement is key. This is how 1.e4 openings are.

If you want a slower game with many of the Sicilian characteristics, you might try the King's Indian Attack, employed by Bobby Fischer a few times. See: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044324 for the KIA.

Here's a game of Short v. Kasparov  with the Najdorf English Attack to demonstrate common ideas for you.  http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070262

Matt doesn't play KIA. probably will never. Nice try Unicorn, but that attempt will go unreceived.

themes in najdorf as white... hmmmm "outposts", "open e file" "don't allow black outposts" "simple chess".

can't believe you made a post on this. gonnosuke's suggestion of "sharpest sicilian" is pretty great - sounds like a book I would get.

now that I realized I've written a lot about nothing, I'll stop.

laters :)

shuttle.