Starting out: Sicilian Scheveningen

The Scheveningen is an uncompromising and flexible variation of Black's most popular defence to 1 e4, the Sicilian. It's a firm favourite of the world's greatest ever chess player, Garry Kasparov, who used it many times in crucial games, including his world championship matches against Anatoly Karpov and Vishy Anand. His success rate against Karpov was so good that the former world champion was forced to abandon his normal first move to avoid it! Black's play in the Scheveningen is based around a solid and resilient pawn structure, a well-defended king and guaranteed counterplay against every white set-up.

In Starting Out: Sicilian Scheveningen Craig Pritchett takes a fresh look at this famous opening. The early moves and ideas are introduced and care is taken to explain the reasoning behind them – something that is often neglected or taken for granted. As with previous works in the popular Everyman Chess Starting Out series, the reader is helped throughout with a plethora of notes, tips and warnings highlighting the vital characteristics of the Sicilian Scheveningen and of opening play in general.