Najdorf Powerbook 2013 | Chessbase | Chess

Whoever plays the Najdorf Variation is following in the footsteps of Fischer, Kasparov, Anand, Gelfand and Topalov. Recent years have witnessed enormous development in this opening, and despite that the last word is a long way from having been said on the matter. Nowadays new ideas in the opening see the light of day above all with the support of chess engines. And it is not rare for tomorrow’s theory to be forged in the “Engine versus Engine” struggles in the computer room on playchess.com. The new Najdorf Powerbook 2013 brings both of these together: the latest state of theory based on 58 000 master games in conjunction with more than 1 070 000 top class Najdorf games from the engine room on playchess.com. These enormous numbers demonstrate how where “human theory” still has only a handful of games to show, the engines frequently “deliver” examples in their hundreds and even thousands. Here is an example in what is perhaps the most important line of the Poisoned Pawn Variation: 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 h6 11.Bh4 dxe5 12.fxe5 g5 13.exf6 gxh4 14.Be2 Qa5 15.0-0 Nd7 16.Kh1 Qg5



A lot of attention was paid to the game Nisipeanu-Wojtaszek, EU-ch 2011, which continued 17.Rf4 e5 and Black went on to win. That need not necessarily have been so, but the analyses show that it is White who tends to have the problems. Anyone looking for alternatives will at first not have a very high opinion of 17.Qe1, since in OTB chess the move has only been played once, and not much more often than that in correspondence chess. Things are quite different in the Najdorf Powerbook 2013: in it, 6185 games constitute a basis for further investigations, and in the main line 17...h3 these convey quite an encouraging picture for White. However, the trend seems to favour 17...Nxf6 and as things appear, Black can equalise with that move.
Conclusion: anyone who is serious about playing the Najdorf cannot do without this Powerbook.