Najdorf Powerbook 2016

It is a totally incredible number of games on which the Najdorf Powerbook 2016 has been based: 1.9 million! Whoever plays the Najdorf Variation is treading in the footsteps of Fischer, Kasparov, Anand, Gelfand and Topalov. In recent years there has been an enormous amount of development in this opening, driven by young players such as Vachier-Lagrave, Wojtaszek, Giri and Dominguez-Perez. Nowadays new opening ideas are helped into the world above all with the support of engines. And it is not rare for tomorrow’s theory to be found in the struggle of “engine versus engine” in the computer room of playchess.com.  The new Najdorf Powerbook 2016 combines both: the latest state of theory based on 120 000 master games together with 1 783 000 high class Najdorf games from the engine room on playchess.com. There 6.Be3 has long since displaced the move preferred in chess between human beings, 6.Bg5. One of the main variations continues as follows: 6...e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 (if you do not like 6.Be3 Ng4, you can also start with 6.f3), and now it almost resembles an article of faith whether one continues with or without ...h5. If you follow the engine games, matters are clear: here 8...h5 is predominant, after 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.Nd5 Bxd5 11.exd5 g6

a critical position has been reached. In the online database no clear picture emerges from the good 100 games – does 12.Be2 (followed by short castling) or 12.0-0-0 offer the better chances? Here our Powerbook can point to 396 713 games with 12.Be2, but the 72 003 games with 12.0-0-0 indicate a better result for long castling. The huge branches in the Powerbook invite you to a tour of discovery. For Najdorf specialists there is no getting past the Sicilian Najdorf Powerbook 2016!