Reviews | September 14, 2010 17:04  Review: The Sicilian Defence
Review: The Sicilian DefenceWould GM Lubomir Ftacnik like to
play an opposite-bishop ending with a pawn down against me
straight from the opening? I was left with this question after
enjoying his latest work on the Sicilian Defence, published in
the Grandmaster Repertoire series.  It's no surprise Ftacnik,
who is a life-time expert on the Sicilian Najdorf, was selected
for the task to write the part on the Sicilian in the excellent
series published by Quality Chess. The Sicilian Defence offers a
complete repertoire against 1.e4 for the serious chess player.
Its original approach (all chapters are named after famous
movies!) and Ftacnik's enthusiastic style of writing add to the
general picture that this is an excellent guide for anyone who
wants to start playing the Sicilian. However, some of the
author's choices are a bit hard to understand. More about this
later on.  An important element in any opening book is its
treatment of sidelines. If s