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22-580: The Najdorf begins: Black's 5...a6 aims to deny the b5-square to White's knights and light-square bishop while maintaining flexible development . If Black plays 5...e5 ?! immediately, then after 6.Bb5+ ! Bd7 (or 6...Nbd7 7.Nf5) 7.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 (or Qxd7) 8.Nf5, the knight on f5 is difficult to dislodge without concessions. Games in the Najdorf frequently feature opposite-side castling, where White castles long and both sides launch simultaneous attacks on their opponents' kings. Black usually plans

44-466: A queenside minority attack to pressure White's e4-pawn. This is often carried out by means of ...b5, ...Bb7, and placing a knight on d5, or c4 via b6. Players began experimenting with 5...a6 in the 1920s, often transposing to the Scheveningen after a subsequent ...e6. The Czech chess master Karel Opočenský was among the first to combine 5...a6 with ...e5, and in an attempt to have

66-584: A classical Sozin Attack, Black has other options, for example he may choose to develop the queen's knight to d7. This line was also favoured by Fischer, who frequently followed it up with an immediate 7.Bb3. In 1925, Sozin published analysis of the move 11...Nxe5 (rather than the previously played 11...axb5) in the Semi-Slav Defense, Meran Variation ( ECO D49) in the Queen's Gambit Declined . The move

88-438: A simultaneous pawn storm on opposite sides of the board. This approach has become the modern mainline and is seen regularly at the highest level. The main move. In the early days of the Najdorf 7.Qf3 was popular, but the reply 7...h6 did not allow White to obtain any advantage. Nowadays, White players almost universally respond with the move: 7.f4. White threatens 8.e5, but Black has several options: Historically speaking, this

110-424: The 1930s, this received little attention until Fischer regularly adopted it, and it was a frequent guest at the top level through the 1970s. White plays 6.Bc4 with the idea of playing against f7, so Black usually counters with 6...e6 7.Bb3 b5. The Sozin has become less popular because of 7...Nbd7 where Black intends to follow up with ...Nc5 later. It is possible to avoid the 7...Nbd7 option with 7.0-0, but this cuts out

132-407: The 19th century; however, he was one of the first to develop the plan of advancing the f-pawn to f5 to put pressure on Black's e6-square after the usual response 6...e6. Sozin played this line during the 1930s, and it became popular from the 1950s, when it was frequently employed by Bobby Fischer . Fischer refined and advanced its theory, leading to the alternative name "Fischer–Sozin Attack". While

154-491: The Amsterdam Variation, leading to a more defensive kingside pawn structure. The idea is to eventually counterattack on the g1–a7 diagonal with a move like ...Qb6, preventing White from castling. An example line would be 6...g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.a4 Nc6 (note 8...Nc6 as opposed to the usual Najdorf ...Nbd7, as c6 is a more flexible square for the knight with a queen on b6) 9.Bd3 Qb6. Introduced by Weaver Adams during

176-721: The Black's move 6...e5. Garry Kasparov would often transpose to the Scheveningen (6...e6) to avoid this problem when the two competed for the World Championships. In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of English players ( John Nunn , Nigel Short, and Murray Chandler ) began using an approach previously tried against other Sicilian variations, such as the Dragon. The English Attack, named for them, involves 6.Be3, and often leads to opposite-side castling with both sides launching

198-490: The Lipnitzky/Fischer Attack (6.Bc4) for much of his career. He won numerous games with it as White, though in the following years counterattacking approaches were found for Black that led to its decline, though a modern variation (7...Nbd7) caused a resurgence and it appeared in the 1993 PCA World Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short . Anatoly Karpov faced the Najdorf many times with

220-806: The Moscow magazine Shakhmatny Vestnik and writing two books. Among Sozin's contributions to opening theory , the Sicilian Sozin Attack and Semi-Slav Sozin Variation bear his name. The Sozin Attack (also known as the Sozin Variation or the Fischer–Sozin Attack) consists of the move 6.Bc4 against the Sicilian Defence, Classical Variation . Sozin was not the first to play this move – examples can be found dating back to

242-592: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 208146783 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:50:52 GMT Veniamin Sozin Veniamin Innokentevich Sozin ( Russian : Вениамин Иннокентьевич Созин , 1896–1956) was a Soviet chess master , writer, and theoretician. Sozin

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264-438: The aggressive possibility of castling long. Because of the success of various players with these variations, White often plays 6.Be2 and goes for a quieter, more positional game, whereupon Black has the option of transposing into a Scheveningen Variation by playing 6...e6 or keeping the game in Najdorf lines by playing 6...e5. Another option is to play 6...Nbd7. Some lines include: GM Daniel King recommends 6...g6 against

286-521: The classic Sozin involves kingside castling, another important continuation called the Velimirovic Attack involves the setup 7.Be3, 8.Qe2, 9.0-0-0 with a view to initiating a sharp attack on Black's kingside. A similar line may be played against the Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation , in which Black plays 5...a6 rather than 5...Nc6; in this case 6.Bc4 is sometimes referred to as the "Sozin–Najdorf". While this line may transpose into

308-453: The e4-pawn, since ...b4 is a threat. It was not until early 2008 that an answer to Black was finally found. After 9.0-0 b4, White has the positional sacrifice 10.Nd5!, which gives Black long-term weaknesses and an open e-file for White to play on. Since then, it has been popular on all levels of play. A notable feature of the Najdorf is the sheer amount of potential white replies - Grandmasters have played 22 different responses to 5...a6. Beside

330-490: The hands of the Najdorf Variation." So from then on he played something else. A Ruy Lopez as Black, something classic in which the other had to know how to play chess to beat him. 6.Bg5 is an aggressive attempt by White to refute the opening and was regarded as the main line until the 1980s when its use began to decline. Bobby Fischer, who called the Najdorf "one of the greatest creations in chess theory", favoured

352-485: The main lines mentioned above, 6.f3, 6.g3, and 6.a4 are also respected responses to the Najdorf. Moves such as 6.Bd3, 6.Qf3, 6.Rg1 (the Petronic Attack), 6.Nb3, 6.a3, 6.h4, 6.Qe2, 6.Qf3, and 6.Qd3 are rarely played, but are not considered bad and may be used for surprise value. Other very rare moves include 6.g4, 6.Nf3, 6.b3, 6.Qd2, and 6.Bd2. Knight (chess) Too Many Requests If you report this error to

374-485: The middle of the twentieth century, this odd-looking pawn move has mostly been used as a surprise weapon to combat the Najdorf. Should Black continue with 6...e5 anyway, White can respond with 7.Nde2 following up with g4 and Ng3, fighting for the weak light squares by playing g5. It is thus recommended that Black prevents g4 altogether with 7...h5. Black can also employ a Scheveningen set-up with 6...e6 followed by 7.g4 b5 8.Bg2 Bb7, forcing White to lose more time by defending

396-460: The seventh or the fourteenth. So then, being a practical person, he thought 'if you have to do something at 7:00AM or at 9:00 or at 10:00, better do it as soon as you get up, and get it over with'. Ironically, Najdorf would abandon the variation later when the theory developed to become very sophisticated: "Here comes some kid who's memorized the moves and he kills me. He arrives with his books, he gets me into something I don't know and Najdorf dies at

418-411: The variation named after him, claimed to have shown it to Miguel Najdorf himself. However, Najdorf was a stronger player and, with the help of other strong Argentine players in the 1950s, deepened the analysis of the opening. He played it as early as 1937. it was Miguel who realized that in this position the move 5...a6 was always useful for Black. If it is not played on the fifth move it will be played on

440-472: The white pieces, and frequently opted for the Classical/Opočenský Variation (6.Be2) (inspired by Efim Geller, who acted as Karpov’s second). The Classical Variation aims to castle kingside for a more positional game, which suited Karpov's style. He contributed both to the theory and the popularity of the variation while at his peak, finding ways to exploit the weakness of the d5-square created by

462-458: Was an active player during the 1920s and 1930s, competing in four Soviet chess championships . Following the third Soviet Championship in 1924, in which he finished a creditable ninth with a score of 9/17, Sozin was awarded the title of Master of Sport; however, he was unable to maintain this level of performance, and was one of several players whose title was revoked in 1935. Sozin was a noted chess theorist and writer, contributing many articles to

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484-715: Was the usual reply until the mid-1960s, when the rejoinder 7.Bc4 put the move "out of business". Recently, however, the line has seen a resurgence in high-level play. The idea for Black is to postpone ...e6 to retain more dynamic options (for example, to play ...e7–e5 in one move). The most important developments include: This has become the modern main line. Since the early 1990s, the English Attack, 6.Be3 followed by f3, g4, Qd2 and 0-0-0 in some order, has become extremely popular and has been intensively analysed. Four lines are then usual for Black: Introduced by Veniamin Sozin in

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