Play the Sveshnikov Sicilian
“In order to understand an opening, you need to know the historical background and have a good feeling for the dynamics”, says the GM Dorian Rogozenco in the introduction to this video course. Based on 30 years of personal experience at high level, Rogozenco provides a complete guide for Black in the modern theory of the Sveshnikov Sicilian.
The Sveshnikov Sicilian regained popularity after the World Championship match 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, where the World Champion used the opening as one of his main weapons. The starting point of this video course is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5. Rogozenco explains the ins and outs of the mainline and sidelines. The course consists of 12 parts, each of them having a video introduction and a database. In the video introduction the author explains some historical background of the variation, its strategic ideas, and gives clear recommendations for Black. In addition to the material in the video introductions, the included databases contain several important annotated games with all necessary theoretical details.
• Video running time: 5 hours 19 minutes(English)
• Extra: Database with extensive analysis and annotations, Training with ChessBase apps - Memorize the opening repertoire and play key positions against Fritz on various levels
Sicilian Sveshnikov Powerbook 2023
For the new edition of the Sveshnikov Powerbook an Elo average of at least 2400 was specified. Thus 14 000 games from the Mega and Correspondence chess met the entry level for the Powerbook, to which have been added 199 000 games from the engine room of playchess.com. For some years now the Sveshnikov System has had such a good reputation that nothing better has occurred to players with White than to avoid it. The fact that Magnus Carlsen discovered this system for himself and selected it to be the only opening with which he as Black met 1.e4 in the WCh match against Fabiano Caruana further advanced its development. Above all the world champion had outstanding results against the Rossolimo Variation and thus the focus shifted more and more to the original Sveshnikov System. So far White has not been able to manage much on a theoretical level and that makes the search for little, venomous side-lines all the more important and valuable. This Powerbook is excellently suited to this task.
In the Sicilian Sveshnikov Powerbook 2023 nice discoveries can also be made. In the tabiya position after 8.Na3 b5 the continuation 9.Bxf6 gxf6 has taken something a back seat, perhaps unjustly so. After 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bd3 Be6 12.0-0 Bxd5 13.exd5 Ne7 14.c3 (the tempting win of a pawn by 14.Nxb5 shows after 14...Bg7 15.Nc3 e4 16.Bc4 0-0 catastrophic statistics for White despite a very slightly positive evaluation in Let's Check) 14...Bg7 15.Re1 0-0
recently 16.Nc2 has been preferred to 16.Qh5, among others by Jeffery Xiong. In the Powerbook 16...f4 17.a4 f5 has good statistics, but objectively speaking Black is struggling to achieve equality.
Sicilian Sveshnikov Powerbase 2023
The 549 selected annotated games offer outstanding material for study. Top players such as Anand (1 annotated game), Gelfand (3), Kramnik (1), Karjakin (1), McShane (5), Ponomariov (1), Radjabov (1), Shankland (1) and Wesley So (2) have analysed their games; the lion’s share has been analysed by our Sveshnikov expert Dorian Rogozenco (392). There is a total of 8553 in which the rating average consists of at least 2460 (apart from the annotated games).
The database loads an overview of the games. A double click loads a game. Using the Players tab allows you to sort the games for frequency. That enables you to take a closer look at players like Magnus Carlsen, Sergei Zhigalko and Michal Krasenkow (experts with the black pieces) or Shirov and Kramnik (experts with both colours).
The games can either be played through or else further investigated with an engine or a powerbook.
