In this, the last of three volumes on 1.e4, GM John Shaw completes his state-of-the-art White repertoire by tackling the biggest challenge of all: the main lines of the Sicilian Defence. Just like the other two books in the series, this book is based upon a foundation of tried and tested main lines, boosted by a number of innovative suggestions that will cause no end of trouble to your opponents.

Including the Dragon, Taimanov, Sveshnikov and concluding with the nefarious Najdorf, this book provides everything you need to face all the major Sicilian systems with confidence.

John Shaw is a grandmaster and three-time Scottish Champion.

The purpose of Playing 1.e4 is to supply a top-class repertoire for White. The first volume covered the Caro-Kann, 1...e5 and minor lines. The second volume covered the French Defence and
some Sicilian sidelines. The repertoire is completed by the present volume on the Sicilian Main Lines. My original intention was to create a two-volume complete repertoire, with the French
and Sicilian in just one volume, but the material grew to such an extent that a split was essential.

Our idea in creating this 1.e4 repertoire was to choose serious lines for White, but ideally not to the same level of theoretical depth as a Grandmaster Repertoire book. But the main lines of the Sicilian challenge that approach – we had to make a choice between a repertoire that is promising but complicated, or easy-to-learn but unthreatening to Black. We chose the former.

I recommend the Open Sicilian, as I feel the anti-Sicilians are not aggressive enough to form an ambitious repertoire. And some of the major Open Sicilian lines, particularly the Sveshnikov and Najdorf, must be met by heavy-duty lines if White is to threaten them. So a significant effort
will be required from the reader in some places, but that is the nature of being an ambitious 1.e4 player. Given the amount of original analysis and new ideas in this book, I am confident that the reader’s efforts will be well rewarded over the board.

Arguably the four biggest defences met in this volume are the Najdorf, Sveshnikov, Dragon
and Taimanov. We target the Najdorf with the English Attack, when Black must thread his way through a narrow path to avoid disaster, and even then we have many dangerous innovations.
Against the Sveshnikov our positional main line with 9. ¤ d5 gives nagging pressure. We meet the Dragon with the modern main line 9.0–0–0, while against the Taimanov we are also on-trend, with dangerous 7. £f3 ideas.

As with my previous books for Quality Chess, my name is on the cover, but creating the book was a team effort. I had the final say on words and analysis, but I was aided by GM Jacob Aagaard, IM Andrew Greet and Nikos Ntirlis. I hope you enjoy reading this book, and that Playing 1.e4 leads you to success.
John Shaw, Glasgow, May 2018