Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation

The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense is one of the most complex and at the same time the most famous openings in chess.

It arises after the moves:

From the Najdorf can, depending on the selected playback, double-edged positions arise in which White attacks on the kingside and black on the queenside. This applies for example for sequels with heterogeneous castling, where the White castled long and black short.

The Najdorf has evolved from the "classic Sicilian ". The train 5 .. a6, the passive or even superfluous appear at first, as it contributes nothing to the character development, has the advantage that it receives a greater flexibility in the black building over 5 .. Nc6; He also prepares a possible black counterplay on the queenside and controls the court b5, which is accessible for either the white knight nor for the runner now.

The black player to be opened by 5 .. a6 possibilities like: e7 - e5 and b7 - b5. By train e7 - e6 Black can often give in to the Scheveningen variation.

History

Positions, which are now referred to as Najdorf were ... achieved in games from the early 1930s, initially through diverter on Abspiele the Scheveningen variation e7 - e6 5, for example, 6 Lc1 - g5 - a6 a7.

The eponymous "discoverer" of the variant is the chess grandmaster Miguel Najdorf ( 1910-1997 ). Early in his career he began to play the Sicilian Defence. In his game against Christian Poulsen on the Chess Olympiad 1939 in Buenos Aires, he brought then for the first time in his career, the Najdorf Variation in pure sequence of moves on the board.

In subsequent years, the Najdorf could prevail only slowly, until the early 50's they gained more and more popularity. Initially played only by Pilnik, Petrosian and Najdorf himself, the Najdorf now got more and more followers, which included world-famous players like Mikhail Tal and Bobby Fischer. Early 80s witnessed the variant by Garry Kasparov, who saw it as his main weapon with the black pieces, a second spring. Today it is one of the most popular responses to 1 e4, both grandmasters, and at club level players.

Due to the large number of variations and play the Najdorf is one of the most feared and most complicated chess openings ever. Some variants are analyzed to well above the 20 train out.

Variants

6 Lc1 - g5, 6 Lc1 -e3 and 6 Lf1 - e2 are the most common Abspiele.

• A sharp system after 6 Lc1 - g5 - e6 e7 f2 - f4 7 is the so-called Poisoned Pawn 7 ... Qd8 - b6.
• 7 ... b7 - b5 is the Polugajewski variant.
• The main variant of the Lc1 - g5 variation is further ... 7 Bf8 - e7 8 Dd1 -f3 Qd8 c7 - 9 0-0-0 Sb8 - d7. Boris Spassky played hereafter Lf1 10 -d3 together with Th1 - e1. Often White pulls his kingside with 10 g2 - g4 on b7 - b5 g4 - g5 11 Lg5xf6 together with f4 and f5.
• The Gothenburg variant did not prove itself.