Beat the Najdorf & Taimanov Sicilians!

From the first moment (about a year ago) when Mr. Daniel Vanheirzeele from Thinkers Publishing he contacted me about the possibility of writing an opening book, i was really excited about the prospect. Writing a chess book was a completely new direction for me, and anything new excites and excites me. Then, after a discussion, we narrowed the subject down to 1.e4 ("Better by Test") and I came across a contract to cover two main variations within the Sicilian Defence: the high Najdorf and the modern Taimanov.

In fact, he already had a decent reputation as a dangerous theorist on the white side of 1.e4, and particularly against these two openings. I had shown some interesting ideas in my games over the years, which were the result of my true passion for opening knowledge, a trait that has accompanied me throughout my chess career.

From a very young age, I had this incurable curiosity about the intricacies of opening. One memorable episode, of which I am still proud today, occurred when I was 13. I had been watching the Karjakin - Anand game at Wijk aan Zee 2006, in which Vishy unleashed a fascinating novelty with 24 ... Cc7. After watching that game, I couldn't sleep and I started analyzing the crazy, sharp English attack for hours and hours. I came up with some very interesting ideas and soon after I showed them to my GM coach RB Ramesh (a very famous world-class coach) in a training session. There were, in total, 20 pages of analysis based on the game! He was surprised by the level of detail, as it was not normal for a thirteen-year-old child in those days to create such a deep analysis (of course, it's a different story now since people become Grand Masters at the age of 13!).

Since then I have been steadily consolidating my reputation, especially among my fellow Indian Grandmasters, as an expert in opening. I have real ideas to impart from many years of work, so it was obvious for me to take the opportunity to write a book and share my knowledge with readers.

The only obstacle left was the time factor. Being an active and ambitious player, I had many tournaments lined up in my calendar and was not sure when I could find time to work on this project, as it was clear that it would be a considerable task. The doubts came to me at some point, but once I started working, I built up a lot of momentum. In both openings, I've worked tirelessly to find new paths and offer a new perspective.