Starting Out: The Sicilian

by John Emms

The Sicilian Defense is perhaps the most famous opening in the history of chess, and it is certainly the most popular at every level. From the first move Black claims his share in the center and constructs an asymmetrical pawn structure. Its greatest attraction is that it allows Black to unbalance the position and play for a win, without having to take any unjustified risks. The many variations of the Sicilian range from the super-solid Scheveningen to the dangerous and ultra-sharp Dragon, so it should be easy to find one that suits your style. In this user-friendly book, Grandmaster John Emms goes back to basics, studying the fundamental principles of the Sicilian Defense in its numerous different guises. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips, warnings and exercises to help the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated. (6 3/4 x 9 3/4, 176 pages, diagrams)

Genres: Chess

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this as a primer on the opening because I don't have time to delve into all the Sicilian variations and I kept running into 1...c5 when what I really want to play are the King's Gambit or the Latvian Gambit. With a nifty little section at the end on the Smith-Morra Gambit, this book let me turn the tables on players trying to drag me into their Sicilian preparation. 1 . . . c5? Meet 2 d4! It's all I play now.

The book does have good basic introductions to all the major variations of the Sicilian, so I recommend it for someone wanting to get started with this opening.

[globulon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of this series. Obviously from the title they are completely geared to people who don't have a lot of experience with the opening in question.

They succeed in my opinion because they give both a word write up of the opening and annotated games to let you see some key variations in action. But there's various items for each variation covered such as statistics on win loss and assessment of how theoretical the variation is.

I have read this one completely through, and most of the one on the English opening. I've also browsed in a number of other volumes in the series. I always feel they end up giving me good concrete ideas.

Obviously if you seriously adopt one of these openings you will need to move on to deeper works, but these books succeed at providing that early orientation when you just want to learn the basics.

[Owen Lindsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sicilian is probably the most common defense you will face, so this is a must for anyone wanting to improve their opening knowledge. I love the layout of the book, explaining just enough on each opening to give you a feel for it. More importantly it explains the purpose and ideas behind each variation. I bought this book shortly before tournament and was able to play 20 moves into the game with confidence, knowing exactly what my plan was and what my opponent was trying to do, even though I'd never played the Yugoslav Attack before.

[Satya Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books you should have if you want to start off with the Sicilian repertoire. Thoroughly enjoyed