The first DVD that I will present you is a chessbase product by Daniel King : "Power Play 21 : A repertoire for black against the anti-sicilians."
First a few words about Daniel King : It is one of my favourites commentators for chessbase. He explains very well all sort of concepts, from very simple to very complicated. I am always happy to see his lessons and I am waiting for his next DVD like a kid the next Harry Potter!
Ok let's return to our presentation : I am searching material to study the Sicilian Defense with black to have a surprise weapon. Ok, I know a surprise weapon with sicilian Defense, it's strange. But I want to play the sicilian like everybody! So I have to study all these anti sicilians and doing it with Mr King is far from a punishment! And I don't want to study for months before playing it.
The running time of the DVD is more than 5 hours and like other products of Daniel King, you will not be bored.
Let's begin with the c3 sicilian where Daniel King advises to play 2...d5 followed by 3...Nf6. I was a bit surprised by his choice because, as you know (or not), people retake with the queen on d5 without a thought! But seeing the lines described, I think I will try them on the board because there is certainly a lot of fun to play like this. On the negative side, you will often have to sacrifice a pawn to have some play. Life is never easy isn't it ? To conclude on this part : if you want something more usual, you will have to learn a lot of theory elsewhere, if you want to surprise your opponent, you're on the right place (and it is exactly what I am looking for, if you follow me).
The second variation is the Morra gambit (2.d4 cxd4 3.c3) and here our favorite commentator is advocating to play a rapid ...a6 to reach positions similar to the najdorf. All in all, I don't have a lot to say about this part, expect that it is very convincing. Black, after having made some precises moves, will stay with a good position and a pawn more.
Next come the Grand Prix attack with 2.Nc3 followed by 3.f4 (2.f4 is also covered) and what King name the "Gawain attack" (1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5). Nothing special to mention. Daniel King will avoid you a lot of trouble if you follow his precise recommandations. You will have a good position with black, almost equal but remember, you have black and you don't have to complain to obtain equality ;-).
Then in the next part, Daniel is talking about the move order and especially : 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 or 3.Ne2. I must admit that I have learnt a lot of things in just 2 videos, especially how to handle certain positions where you have a pawn structure with e5-d6-c5 when white push f4 and want to attack your king. A must see (for me lol)! Then he spend a little time talking to najdorf lovers which white can annoy with a specific move order.
The closed Sicilian is the next variation studied. Here, Daniel King advises to play a kingside fianchetto and first of all, to stay flexible in the center, pushing the e pawn depending of white formation. A very interesting part, finally, the closed sicilian is easy to handle with black.
After that, Daniel divide the Fb5 into 2 variations depending on the development of blacks : he can play 3...d6 or 3...Nc6. For the first variation, Daniel advocates to play Bd7 followed by a retake on d7 with the knight, not the most played but very solid. For the second one, it is advices to play ...g6, the old variation and retake on c6 (after Bxc6) with the b-pawn. A very good section where Black must be precise but, if he is, he will have no problem at all.
Then come the subvariations with g3 or d3 and Daniel explains why it is subvariations. Frequently, white finish in a bad position with no prospects!
At the end, there is some tests position which in fact are more than that because some games are in integrality with very good comments.
So to conclude, I find this DVD very useful and I learnt a lot of things. My only reserve is with the first part 2.c3 but I have to practice a little to have a better idea. So I say Daniel, great job! I now wait for your next work!
