Descripción

The Modernized Sicilian Kan When you are building your repertoire you have many choices

available against 1.e4. Everyone knows  the Sicilian is the most dangerous reply but there are so

many choices! Most of them are highly  theoretical such as the Najdorf or the Dragon. Some are very

difficult to understand from a positional  and dynamical point of view. The Kalashnikov and the

Sveshnikov are two good examples, without  even mentioning the amount of theory.

 

I have always been interested by less theoretical Sicilians. I have been playing the Classical Sicilian

for a long time and right before the covid period, I decided to find a new one. The Sicilian Kan came

to me as a very serious option, and I decided to work on it. In the meantime, my friend and editor

Daniël Vanheirzeele offered me the chance to author a book about it. This came to me as a complete

surprise, as I had no experience with it. In comparison with my work on the Reti and the Dutch (my

two previous books), I am a newbie on the subject. But I decided to accept the challenge. I found it

extremely interesting, as this gave me a fresh look at the positions. I think I managed to ask myself

the questions everyone would have asked. I also work as a second for others and am accustomed to

working on openings I do not necessarily play as well as finding the key ideas very quickly. So, after a

deep initial work to understand the variations, I was ready to start writing!

 

The Modernized Sicilian Kan

 

I knew that keeping the variations to a reasonable length would be a hard task as the opening is generally considered to be better for White.

 

In opposition to my prior efforts, I decided to start with the mainlines. I did it both during my work

and then in the structure of the book. It seemed better to address the most difficult lines first to prove

that Black gets playable positions, and then take care of the less challenging lines. This approach

allows you to have an idea of the typical positions and then compare it with the less usual lines so you

may understand why the sidelines are not as good.

 

I take this as an opportunity to share my knowledge of openings and how I analyze them. I started

this book with the idea that I wanted it to be useful for all levels of playing strength, from amateurs to

even top grandmasters. I really consider the best books to be those where everyone can understand

the basics of the variations while also being of use to anyone that aims at going deeper into the

theory.

 

Sicilian-KAN