A Practical Repertoire Playing the Najdorf By David Vigorito For Zoe & Gavin and Clara & Jack Quality Chess www.qualitychess.co.uk Contents Key to Symbols used & Bibliography 4 Introduction 5 6.¥e2 1 6...e5 7.¤f3!? & 7.¤b3 11 2 9.¥e3 37 3 Other 9th Moves 67 6.¥e3 4 6...e5 7.¤de2!? & 7.¤f3 103 5 The English Attack 130 6 9.¤d5 155 7 7.¤b3 without f2-f3 190 6.¥g5 8 Introduction 219 9 10.¥d3 243 10 10.g4 275 6.¥c4 11 6...e6 7.¥b3 ¤c6!? 8.¥e3 ¥e7 9.0–0 315 12 9.f4 340 13 9.£e2 356 6.h3 14 6...e5 7.¤b3 392 15 7.¤de2 414 Minor Lines 16 6.g3 449 17 6.f4 479 18 Odds and Ends 506 Appendix – Anti-Sicilians 537 Introduction 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 The purpose of this book is toteach you how to play the Najdorf. Of course a lot of theory will be discussed, but there will always come a point where we are ‘out of book’ – be it move 25 or move 10 – and then we have to understand what we are doing. I have been playing the Najdorf for about twenty-five years and teaching it for about a decade. Despite the fact that it has a reputation for being fantastically complicated and theoretical, I believe that at its heart it is a strategic opening, and that players of different styles can enjoy playing it and improve their chess while doing so. I have found that positional players adopting the Najdorf improve their tactical ability and feel for the initiative. Conversely, tactical players can develop their strategic play because there are so many recurring themes that arise from the typical pawn structures that one must master in order to successfully play the Najdorf. When I was younger, I played the Sicilian Dragon for a long time, and it is still an opening that I have a strong attachment to. One advantage of the Dragon is that it is relatively simple to understand strategically. However, the drawback is that the strategy is also easy for your opponents! Everyone knows Fischer’s saying, “Open the h-file, sac, sac, mate.” So, if you are trying to outplay a lower-rated opponent, you may well have to achieve your objective tactically, because the strategic plans are so easily understood. Another disadvantage is that there are certain main lines (notably the Yugoslav Attack with 9.0–0–0) where Black is basically just trying to prove a draw. Then along came the Najdorf. More specifically, along came Danny King’s Winning with the Najdorf. This book explained the Najdorf conceptually and helped me to realize that it was not all about the Poisoned Pawn Variation. Sometimes I will tell students, only half-jokingly, that I used 6 Playing the Najdorf to play the Dragon until it was time to ‘grow up’, at which point I switched to the Najdorf and never looked back. I will admit that my years of playing the Dragon gave me a useful head start, as I was already pretty well versed in the various Anti-Sicilians, especially as I was playing 2...d6. Although King’s Winning with the Najdorf is from 1993, it is still a great read if you can find an old copy. So thanks Danny – and I hope that you find this book a worthy tribute to your 26-year-old book! I am not going to present a bunch of ‘typical examples’ here in the introduction, as there This is an important pawn structure. When will be plenty of instructive games throughout I first saw this game, I was horrified that Black the book. I do, however, want to start with one could allow his ‘good’ bishop to be traded off famous game, as it does not fit so well with like this. I was sure that the ‘bad’ dark-squared modern theory, yet it remains a classic example bishop and weak d5-square would be the end of a thematic pawn structure which every of Black. However, there are counter-chances Najdorf player should know. Today many of to be found on the queenside, especially the the world’s best players employ the Najdorf: c-file, and White’s e4-pawn is also a target – a Carlsen, Nakamura, Anand, Vachier-Lagrave, consequence of White’s early f4-f5. Ding Liren, Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin, Topalov, Navara, Shankland and 11.a4 Wojtaszek have all incorporated it into their This restrains Black’s ...b5 advance. repertoires to varying degrees. Kasparov also played the Najdorf throughout his career – and 11...¥e7 12.¥e3 0–0 13.a5 before him, there was Robert James Fischer. After 13.g4!? White is not only looking Wolfgang Unzicker – Robert Fischer to attack, but also to conquer the centre by driving away the f6-knight. Varna 1962 1.e4 c5 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 a6 6.¥e2 e5 7.¤b3 Our first three chapters will cover this classical line. 7...¥e6?! Fischer makes a move which was popular in the 1960s. However, in Chapter 1 we will see that 7...¥e7! is more accurate. 8.0–0 ¤bd7 9.f4 £c7!? 10.f5 ¥c4 Black must play: 13...d5! (or at least the similar 13...h6 14.h4 d5!) 14.exd5 Introduction 7 (14.¤xd5?! ¤xd5 15.exd5 ¤f6 wins back in the early 1970s. Black has good counterplay, the pawn) 14...¥b4„ Fighting for the central for instance: 16.¥xb6 £xb6 17.¥xc4 ¦xc4 squares, with excellent counterplay. 18.£e2 ¦ac8 19.¦a2 ¥d8! 20.¦fa1 £b7 21.¦a4 ¦xa4 22.¦xa4 ¦c6 (22...a5„ has also scored well) 23.£d3 g6 With chances for both sides. A couple of classic games are Scholl – Ivkov, Amsterdam 1971, and Karpov – Stoica, Graz 1972. 15...£xb6† 16.¢h1 ¥b5!? Black is hoping to get in ...¥c6. 17.¥xb5 Black is doing well after 17.¤xb5 axb5 18.£d3 b4³. The safest choice for White was 17.¥d3! with 13...b5! equality. This also came as a surprise to me in my younger days. Black does not mind the en 17...axb5 18.¤d5 ¤xd5 19.£xd5 passant capture as he needs to open the Now we have a classic knight vs. bad bishop. queenside. A similar occurrence happens all of Or do we? Again, the knight cannot get to the the time in the Modern Benoni. d5-square. With his next move Fischer grabs the initiative. 14.axb6 ¤xb6 The knight sizes up the c4- and d5-squares. 19...¦a4! 20.c3 £a6 21.h3 This move deviates from a game played earlier 15.¥xb6 the same year, in which Fischer had the very 15.¢h1 is more flexible, after which same position against none other than Mikhail 15...¦fc8 reaches a position which was popular Tal. That game had continued: 21.¦ad1 ¦c8 22.¤c1 b4 23.¤d3 bxc3 24.bxc3 8 Playing the Najdorf both 24...£a7³ and 24...h5³ (intending ...h4) maintain some pressure for Black. 24...£a7!µ Threatening a nasty check on f2. 25.¢g2 ¦a2! 26.¢f1? This loses immediately, but 26.£d3 ¦xb2† 27.¦e2 ¦xe2† 28.£xe2 £c7µ would be ultimately hopeless as well. In Tal – Fischer, Curacao 1962, Black could 26...¦xc3! have fought for the advantage with 24...¦xc3! 0–1 because 25.¤xe5? dxe5 26.£xe5 (26.£d8† Despite the age of this game, it remains as ¥f8–+) does not work after 26...¥b4! and if instructive as ever – not just for understanding 27.£xc3 £xf1†! Black wins. the Najdorf, but also as a lesson in strategic play. 21...¦c8 22.¦fe1 h6 23.¢h2 ¥g5 Maybe Black’s bishop is not so bad after all! Overall Approach and Structure of the Book White’s ambitious f4-f5 has a downside, as his kingside is weakened. When you gain space I recommended the specific lines in this book like this, you have to be careful if the enemy because I have studied, played and taught pieces get behind the pawn shield to the soft them all for many years. In general, we will underbelly of your position. This is what over- play 6...e5 when we can, to get a ‘true’ Najdorf extension looks like. structure. The main exceptions are 6.¥c4 and 6.¥g5, as these moves immediately influence the critical d5-square, rendering a quick ...e5 virtually unplayable. In these cases, we will play 6...e6 and gain some exposure to a different kind of structure. I have used both the ‘complete games’ and ‘variation tree’ formats in my previous books, and I believe there are pros and cons to both. In this book I wanted to teach the Najdorf the way I learned it, and that was by going over a lot of games. In some lines, however, it is not so easy to find a nice model game. I also wanted to avoid analysing long endgames in what is an opening/middlegame book. Therefore I 24.g3? finally decided on a mixed structure involving White is trying to prepare h3-h4, in the hope a combination of illustrative games and of covering some dark squares and hiding his variation trees, hopefully offering the best of king on h3. He simply does not have time for both worlds. it though. He needed to play 24.£d3, when Introduction 9 While I have included a lot of modern games, 6.¥e3 I also chose many older games which made a strong impression on me.