The Modernized Sicilian Kan - by Demuth (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

When you are building your repertoire you
have many choices available against 1.e4. Everyone knows the Sicilian is the
most dangerous reply but there are so many choices! Most of them are highly
theoretical such as the Najdorf or the Dragon. Some are very difficult to
understand from a positional and dynamical point of view. The Kalashnikov and
the Sveshnikov are two good examples, without even mentioning the amount of
theory.

I have always been interested by less

theoretical Sicilians. I have been playing the Classical Sicilian for a long
time and right before the covid period, I decided to find a new one. The
Sicilian Kan came to me as a very serious option, and I decided to work on it.
In the meantime, my friend and editor Daniël Vanheirzeele offered me the chance
to author a book about it. This came to me as a complete surprise, as I had no
experience with it. In comparison with my work on the Reti and the Dutch (my
two previous books), I am a newbie on the subject. But I decided to accept the
challenge. I found it extremely interesting, as this gave me a fresh look at
the positions. I think I managed to ask myself the questions everyone would
have asked. I also work as a second for others and am accustomed to working on
openings I do not necessarily play as well as finding the key ideas very quickly.
So, after a deep initial work to understand the variations, I was ready to
start writing8

In opposition to my prior efforts, I
decided to start with the mainlines. I did it both during my work and then in
the structure of the book. It seemed better to address the most difficult lines
first to prove that Black gets playable positions, and then take care of the less
challenging lines. This approach allows you to have an idea of the typical
positions and then compare it with the less usual lines so you may understand
why the sidelines are not as good.

I take this as an opportunity to share

my knowledge of openings and how I analyze them. I started this book with the
idea that I wanted it to be useful for all levels of playing strength,
from amateurs to even top grandmasters. I really consider the best books to be
those where everyone can understand the basics of the variations while also
being of use to anyone that aims at going deeper into the theory.

I based many of the lines and
conclusions in this book not only on computer evaluation, but also from a
practical point of view. While I did a deep dive using strong engines when
analyzing the lines I cannot say that they are perfect. The most important
thing is that all of the evaluations are based upon my own understanding and knowledge of
chess.

Adrien Demuth November 2021

Review Quotes

French Grandmaster Adrien Demuth has
filled a gap in the literature with his The Modernized Sicilian Kan.
The system 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6, sometimes called the
Paulsen after the German-American master who played it successfully on many occasions
in the 1880s, has few books devoted to it - the most recent by Johan Hellstein was
almost 15 years ago.

The repertoire Demuth proposes is centered around 5...Bc5 ( after1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxf4 a6 5.Bd3) with the critical line running 6.Nb3 Ba7 7. 0-0 Ne7
8.Qe2 Nbc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.Bxa7 Rxa7. Against 5.c4 he advocates for central
oriented play with 5...Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 as opposed to a Hedgehog setup. Besides
a complete repertoire against the Open Sicilian, the author also covers 3.c3,
3.b3 and various sidelines.

This book will prove quite useful for players over 2000 who wish to take up the Kan/Paulsen variation of the
Sicilian. Those who play the O'Kelly (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6) will also find it useful as they can answer 3.Nc3 with 3...e6.

IM John Donaldson, March 2022.