Beating The English

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Beating the English is a rip-roaring Reversed Sicilian repertoire for Black by GM Dejan Bojkov, one of the chess world’s leading chess coaches and an expert in the English opening.

GM Bojkov is a former coach of Women’s World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. He currently coaches the New Zealand national chess team and travels the world teaching and coaching the brightest young talents.

Beating the English contains Black's most aggressive way to take on 1.c4 the English Opening by answering it with 1... e5.

Reversed Sicilian

GM Bojkov devised his repertoire to follow White's response to the Sicilian but with colours reversed.

So, Black plays against the Sicilian a tempo down but GM Bojkov shows this is very possible because of White's timid first move.

In his research, GM Bojkov tried to avoid heavily-analyzed lines whenever possible to make sure that there is room for creativity and flexibility while at the same time making it safe from a positional point of view even after the opening.

Many of the lines do not just end with a verdict of + or –, but with concrete strategic suggestions on how to play the ensuing middle game and endgame.

And, wherever possible, GM Bojkov gives alternative options making this repertoire truly flexible.

There’s an excellent chapter with model games that goes truly in-depth. This repertoire is as detailed and instructive as they come and a true must-have for anyone who likes to play solid but aggressive positional chess.

Special credit to DecodeChess for allowing GM Bojkov to use their platform for additional analysis.