“Sethuraman Panayappan Sethuraman is an Indian born chess grandmaster. Among his many successes we remember him winning the national championship in 2014 and becoming Asian champion in 2016. For his country, he played in several team competitions achieving countless successes: Bronze Medal Chess Olympiad 2014, Gold Medal Asian Teams 2016, Gold Medal Asian Teams 2016 & Silver Medal Asian Teams 2018. He is currently one of the leading grandmasters of the new Indian chess generation and a very renowned opening specialist. This is his first book for Thinkers Publishing.”
From the publisher we have this brief blurb:
“The book you hold is the first work of GM Sethuraman and contains his efforts to find new paths and fresh perspectives on these two variations of these famous Sicilians. We hope you gain from information in this book as well as simply enjoy the games themselves.”
End of blurb…
The author is Indian Grandmaster S P Sethuraman who was born in 1993 and very much a child prodigy. In 2004 he won the under-12 Asian Championships and in 2009 the World under-16 Championship and in the same year he qualified for the Grandmaster title.
In his first book the authors starts-off by looking at the Sicilian Najdorf recommending that white should play the modest move 6.h3.
[fen cal=Gh2h3]rnbqkb1r/1p2pppp/p2p1n2/8/3NP3/2N4P/PPP2PP1/R1BQKB1R b KQkq – 0 1[/fen]
The earliest appearance for this move would appear to be in 1949 at the US Open played by Weaver Adams versus Max Pavey. 6.h3 was subsequently made popular in the 1960s by Bobby Fischer and features three times in his book My 60 Memorable Games in games 35, 40 and 43.
In 1962 Fischer used 6.h3 to first beat Julio Bolbochan at Stockholm then Miguel Najdorf at the Varna Olympiad and finally Samuel Reshevsky in the 1962 – 63 US championship.
It is worthy of note that the author has played 6.h3 himself on eleven occasions scoring an impressive 77.3%. Here is a swift example:
[pgn]
[Event “Gibraltar Masters 14th”]
[Site “Caleta”]
[Date “2016.02.01”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Sethuraman, SP.”]
[Black “Kelires, Andreas”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B90”]
[WhiteElo “2639”]
[BlackElo “2444”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “49”]
[EventDate “2016.01.26”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “GGB”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 171”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2016.03.14”]
[SourceVersion “2”]
[SourceVersionDate “2016.03.14”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,49,26,16,69,51,73,70,66,61,64,27,48,28,48,1,74,66,58,42,40,31,29,27,
17,42,46,41,42,44,20,35,39,4,63,48,39,81,67,42,166,166,251,237,241,147,331,331,
916,260,574,534]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 Nc6
7. g4 Qb6 8. Nb3 e6 9. g5 Nd7 10. Bf4 Qc7 11. Qd2 {[#]} Be7 $146 ({Relevant:}
11… b5 12. O-O-O Nce5 13. Bg3 Rb8 14. f4 Nc4 15. Bxc4 bxc4 16. Nd4 Nc5 17.
Rhe1 Qb6 18. b3 cxb3 19. axb3 Bb7 20. f5 Rc8 21. Kb1 Be7 22. f6 gxf6 23. gxf6
Bf8 24. Qe3 Nd7 25. Nd5 Qc5 26. Nxe6 Qxe3 27. Ng7+ Bxg7 28. fxg7 Qxb3+ 29. cxb3
Rg8 30. Ne3 Bxe4+ 31. Ka1 Kd8 32. Nc4 d5 33. Nd6 Rxg7 34. Rxd5 Rxg3 35. Nxe4
Rg6 36. Red1 Rc7 37. Nc5 Rxc5 38. Rxc5 Rb6 39. Kb2 Rb7 40. Rc6 Ke7 41. Ka3 {
Yu,Y (2715)-Dominguez Perez,L (2746) Havana 2015 1-0}) 12. O-O-O Nde5 13. Bg3
b5 14. f4 Nc4 15. Bxc4 bxc4 16. Nd4 Bd7 17. Nf3 Rb8 18. f5 Qb6 19. b3 O-O $2 {
[#]} (19… Nb4) 20. f6 $1 gxf6 $2 (20… cxb3 $18 {is the best the engine has
to offer.}) 21. gxf6 Bxf6 22. Rhg1 $18 Bg7 23. Bxd6 Qa5 24. e5 ({More clinical
was} 24. Rxg7+ $1 Kxg7 25. Rg1+ Kh8 26. Qh6 Rg8 27. Qf6+ Rg7 28. Qxg7#) 24…
Kh8 25. Rxg7 {and Black threw in the towel.} 1-0
[/pgn]
Amongst current elite players 6.h3 has been chosen by Hikaru Nakamura. Following 6.h3 White will put his dark square Bishop on e3 and castle Queen side. He also intends to play g4 and then g5.
Chapter 1 looks first at 6…Nc6 which was the move Bolbochan played and after 7.g4 h6 8.Be3 e6 9.f4! White intends to play Bg2, the most normal square for the bishop in this line, then Qf3 and OOO.
[fen cal=Gf2f4] r1bqkb1r/1p3pp1/p1nppn1p/8/3NPPP1/2N1B2P/PPP5/R2QKB1R b KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
White will then start pushing black back with g5 when he will be very much on the offensive. Possibly a better try for black is to play 7…g6 where the GM admits that if black knows his theory then he should be able to achieve equality. 7…Qb6 (the most popular database move) is also considered but White will play Nb3 and at a later stage Be3 attacking the Queen.
In Fischer v Najdorf the move 6…b5 was played and the author suggests responding 7.a4 answering b4 with 8.Nd5 with best play White appears to retain an advantage.
[fen cal=Gc3d5] rnbqkb1r/4pppp/p2p1n2/3N4/Pp1NP3/7P/1PP2PP1/R1BQKB1R b KQkq – 0 1[/fen]
7.Nd5 was played in the Fischer v Najdorf game and that also seems promising for White. Fischer reveals that Reshevsky’s choice of 6…g6, treating the game as if it were a type of dragon position, was a sensible one and since White generally follows up with Be3, Qd2 and 000 the American GM seems to make a fair point. However, there are some differences with a conventional Yugoslav Attack as white has not yet played his Bishop to c4 and in some lines he will play Bg2 followed by f4.
In Chapter 3 6…e6 is examined. After 7 g4 d5 the somewhat surprising 8.Nde2! may shock players of the black pieces.
[fen cal=Gd4e2] rnbqkb1r/4pppp/p4n2/1p1p4/4P1P1/2N4P/PPP1NP2/R1BQKB1R b KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
Black can instead try 7…h6, a natural reaction to g4, but if he intends to castle king side this can be a dangerous weakening move to play. In the so-called main line of 7…Be7 we have 8.g5 and White will carry out the standard plan of Be3, Qd2, 000 and, at the right time, h4 when his attack seems more dangerous than blacks.
Interestingly, the favourite / thematic Najdorf move of 6…e5 is not as effective as it is against the English attack it would appear when
White plays Nb3, Be3 and then f4!
In summary, since 6.h3 is less often played than either 6.Be3 or 6.Bg5 it could well be a wise choice and therefore a good repertoire suggestion.
The second part of this book deals with the Sicilian Taimanov variation.
[fen cal=Gb8c6] r1bqkbnr/pp1p1ppp/2n1p3/8/3NP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
By far the most popular fifth move for white these days is 5.Nc3 which is in preference to Fischer’s 5.Nb5.
Again, the author practices what he preaches with 19 games and a hit rate of 68.4%. In this encounter from 2019 his hapless opponent tries the unpopular and offbeat 5…Be7 and gets things very wrong indeed:
[pgn]
[Event “Bayern-chI Bank Hofmann 23rd”]
[Site “Tegernsee”]
[Date “2019.11.01”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Sethuraman, SP.”]
[Black “Morawietz, Dieter”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B45”]
[WhiteElo “2624”]
[BlackElo “2419”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “21”]
[EventDate “2019.10.26”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “GER”]
[SourceTitle “Mega2020 Update 03”]
[Source “Chessbase”]
[SourceDate “2019.11.07”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2019.11.07”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,21,20,46,52,66,80,45,38,21,26,31,108,100,93,93,165,128,214,194,214,
190,261,268]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Be7 $2 ({
Relevant:} 5… a6 6. Qd3 Qc7 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8. Qg3 Qxg3 9. hxg3 Rb8 10. b3 d5
11. Bb2 Nf6 12. Bd3 Bc5 13. f3 Bd4 14. O-O-O c5 15. exd5 exd5 16. g4 Bb7 17.
Rde1+ Kf8 18. g5 Ne8 19. Na4 Bxb2+ 20. Kxb2 c4 21. Nc5 Bc8 22. Bf1 Nc7 23. Re5
Rb5 24. Na4 d4 25. Re4 c3+ 26. Kc1 Rb4 27. a3 Rxa4 28. bxa4 Ne6 29. Bc4 Ke7 30.
Bxe6 Bxe6 31. Rxd4 Rb8 32. Rb4 Rc8 33. Rd1 g6 34. Rb7+ Kf8 35. Rb6 {Triapishko,
A (2771)-Andreikin,D (2929) Chess.com INT 2018 1/2-1/2 (69)}) 6. Ndb5 $1 d6 7.
Bf4 Ne5 8. Qd4 a6 $2 {Ooops! [#]} 9. O-O-O $1 $146 ({Predecessor:} 9. Nxd6+
Bxd6 10. Bxe5 Bxe5 11. Qxe5 Nf6 12. Rd1 Qb6 13. Qd4 Qxd4 14. Rxd4 e5 15. Rd1
Be6 16. Nd5 Bxd5 17. exd5 b5 18. g3 Ne4 19. Bg2 Nd6 20. O-O Rc8 21. c3 Kd8 22.
Rfe1 Re8 23. Re2 Rc4 24. Rc2 e4 25. b3 Rc5 26. c4 bxc4 27. bxc4 Rxc4 28. Rxc4
Nxc4 29. Bf1 Nd6 30. Bxa6 Kd7 31. Rd4 Ra8 32. Bc4 Nxc4 33. Rxc4 Rxa2 34. Rxe4
Rd2 35. Re5 f6 36. Rh5 h6 37. Kg2 Kd6 38. Rh4 Kxd5 {Van Eijk,S (2274)
-Pogorelov,R (2453) Banyoles 2007 1/2-1/2}) 9… Nf6 10. Bxe5 dxe5 11. Qxe5 $18
1-0
[/pgn]
After the more main stream 5…Qc7 6.Be3 a6 the author recommends 7.Qf3
[fen cal=Gd1f3] r1b1kbnr/1pqp1ppp/p1n1p3/8/3NP3/2N1BQ2/PPP2PPP/R3KB1R b KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
and both Black responses of 7…Bb4 and 7…Nge7 are examined in detail. I was somewhat surprised that after 7…Bb4 8.000 is recommend daring black to play the “ruinous” 8…Bxc3 as White’s dark squared bishop tends to be very strong in these structures.
Black can also try 7…b5 but 8.Qg3 led to a pleasant end game for White in Motylev v Aravindh 2017 and the actual game result was not the fault of the opening:
[pgn]
[Event “Sitges Sunway op 4th”]
[Site “Sitges”]
[Date “2017.12.21”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Motylev, Alexander”]
[Black “Aravindh, Chithambaram VR”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B48”]
[WhiteElo “2675”]
[BlackElo “2586”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “98”]
[EventDate “2017.12.15”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ESP”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 182 Extra”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.02.23”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.02.23”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,98,19,42,51,41,61,40,40,42,39,28,78,83,88,71,103,46,40,45,43,43,38,41,
35,28,32,40,38,36,28,29,51,40,54,55,72,65,94,36,56,49,76,65,58,76,66,13,32,15,
115,104,102,71,75,71,75,19,22,33,23,10,23,25,51,4,0,0,0,-134,-142,-179,-159,
-201,-175,-245,-235,-239,-249,-242,-247,-252,-223,-259,-290,-290,-267,-267,
-188,-226,-187,-577,-587,-587,-587,-587,-587,-587,-587,-587,-587]} 1. e4 c5 2.
Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Qf3 b5 ({Relevant:} 7…
Bd6 8. O-O-O Be5 9. g3 Nge7 10. Qe2 O-O 11. f4 Bxd4 12. Bxd4 Nxd4 13. Rxd4 e5
14. Rd1 exf4 15. e5 f3 16. Qxf3 Qxe5 17. Bg2 d6 18. Rhe1 Qg5+ 19. Kb1 Be6 20.
Qxb7 d5 21. Nxd5 Nxd5 22. Bxd5 Rab8 23. Qc6 Rfc8 24. Qd6 Bf5 25. Be4 Bxe4 26.
Rxe4 Rd8 27. Rde1 Qb5 28. Qe5 Qc6 29. b3 h6 30. Kb2 Rb5 31. Qf4 Rc8 32. R1e2
Rc5 33. c4 a5 34. Qe3 Kh7 35. Re5 Qf6 36. Qf4 Qg6 37. Qe4 {Caruana,F (2813)
-Movsesian,S (2677) Douglas 2016 1-0}) 8. Qg3 Qxg3 9. hxg3 Bb7 10. Nxc6 Bxc6
11. f3 Bd6 12. g4 {[#]} Bg3+ $146 ({Predecessor:} 12… f6 13. O-O-O Bc7 14.
Ne2 Ne7 15. Bc5 Ng6 16. b3 h6 17. Bd6 Bxd6 18. Rxd6 Ke7 19. Rd2 Rhd8 20. Nd4
Bb7 21. c4 bxc4 22. Bxc4 Rac8 23. Kb2 Ne5 24. Be2 Rc7 {1/2-1/2 (24) Li,Y (2237)
-Zhang,X (2320) Shenzhen 2016}) 13. Bf2 Be5 14. O-O-O Ne7 15. Ne2 f6 16. Nd4
Bb7 17. Nb3 Bc7 18. Kb1 h6 19. a3 Bc6 20. Nd4 Bb6 21. c4 bxc4 22. Bxc4 a5 23.
Bg3 Bxd4 24. Rxd4 Ng6 25. Bd6 $16 Ne5 26. Ba2 Nf7 27. Bc5 Rb8 28. b4 axb4 29.
Bxb4 Ne5 30. Ka1 Ra8 31. Rc1 g5 32. Rd6 $11 h5 33. gxh5 Rxh5 {[#]} 34. g3 $6
Rh3 35. f4 gxf4 36. Bxe6 Rxg3 37. Bxd7+ Bxd7 38. Rxf6 Raxa3+ 39. Bxa3 Rxa3+ 40.
Kb2 Re3 41. Rh1 Ke7 42. Ra6 Nd3+ 43. Kb1 Re1+ 44. Rxe1 Nxe1 45. e5 f3 46. Rf6
Bg4 47. Ka2 Nd3 48. Kb3 f2 49. Kc3 Be2 0-1
[/pgn]
If White prefers then 8.Nxc6 is also quite a promising line.
Black moves such as 7…Bd6 and the hedgehog-like 7…d6 where White will often respond to black castling King side with launching his g and h pawn up the board. Finally the knight moves 7…Ne5 and 7…Nf6 are analysed.
In summary, this is a new book from a new author with a generous quantity of analysis given but unlike many modern opening books it is not centered around illustrative games. It will appeal to players who are confident in their abilities to learn and recall more analysis than their opponent.
[fen cal=Gb2c3] r1b1k1nr/1pqp1ppp/p1n1p3/8/3NP3/2P1BQ2/P1P2PPP/2KR1B1R b Kkq – 0 1 [/fen]
Colin Lyne, Farnborough, Hampshire, 14th July, 2021
Book Details :
- Paperback : 240 pages
- Publisher: Thinkers Publishing; 1st edition (22 Sept. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9492510820
- ISBN-13: 978-9492510822
- Product Dimensions: 16.51 x 1.52 x 22.86 cm
Official web site of Thinkers Publishing