NIC Forum
Readers from all over the world join in discussions of previous surveys. Both (grand)masters and club players shed their light on new opening developments and search together for the truth. With contributions by Alon Greenfeld, Baadur Jobava, and many others.

Sosonko's Corner
This column is an hommage to Oleg Mikhailovich Romanishin. Sacrificing a pawn in the opening to get active play has always been a hallmark of his style. Sosonko depicts the Ukranian genius as one of the leading lights in modern chess research. Of late the results of the 52-year-old Romanishin may have been relatively modest, but this riveting and original grandmaster remains capable of bringing down even the strongest opponent, as Vasily Ivanchuk found out to his detriment at the 2004 Ukrainian championship.

Book Review
Due to the overflow of information these days, authors of opening books have to make dictinct choices and draw the line somewhere (which variations should be covered, which ignored?) and some of them seem better than others at this fundamental task. Glenn Flear had a look at monographs by Nigel Davies and the Polish duo Panczyk & Ilczuk.
Guest-author Sergey Tiviakov reviews three recent publications on the Sicilian Najdorf Variation, revealing on the way that he has not read opening books for a long time.
 
34 NIC Surveys Yearbook 73
Sicilian Defence: Najdorf Variation, by Boersma
Sicilian Defence: Sozin Variation, by Golubev
Sicilian Defence: Four Knights Variation, by Karolyi
Sicilian Defence: Basman-Sale Variation, by Sale
Sicilian Defence: Closed Variation, by Van der Weide
Sicilian Defence: Alapin Variation, by Rogozenko
Sicilian Defence: Bezgodov Variation, by Bezgodov
Pirc Defence: The 150 Attack, by Marin
French Defence: Winawer Variation, by Van der Tak
Caro-Kann Defence: Advance Variation, by Fogarasi
Caro-Kann Defence: Smyslov Variation, by Galkin
Caro-Kann Defence: Classical Variation, by Llanos/Soppe
Alekhine Defence: Modern Variation, by Panczyk/Ilczuk
Ruy Lopez: Jaenisch Variation, by Van der Tak
Ruy Lopez: Anti-Marshall Variation, by Lukacs/Hazai
Ruy Lopez: Marshall Attack, by Naiditsch
Ruy Lopez: Open Variation, by Timoshenko
Italian Opening: Evans Gambit, by De Zeeuw
Two Knights Defence: Bogoljubow Variation, by Van der Tak
Budapest Gambit, by Pliester
Slav: 3.Nf3 dc4, by Nikitin
Slav: Chameleon Variation, by Lukacs/Hazai
Slav: Alapin Variation, by Karolyi
Catalan: Bogo-Indian Variation, by Greenfeld
Catalan: Accepted – 4...dc4, by Anka
Nimzo-Indian Defence: Classical Variation, by Tiviakov
Grünfeld Indian Defence: Fianchetto Variation, by Karolyi
Grünfeld Indian Defence: Exchange Variation, by Pelletier/Bauer
King’s Indian Defence: Classical Variation, by Morgado
King’s Indian Defence: Anti-Anti-Grünfeld, by Lukacs/Hazai
Benoni: Fianchetto Variation, by Kapengut
Volga Gambit Declined, by Fogarasi
Dutch Defence: Leningrad Variation, by Van der Stricht
English Opening: Anti-Grünfeld Line, by Marin

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