The Najdorf is the most famous system in the Sicilian and the favourite opening of Fischer and Kasparov. Everything rests on the modest 5...a6: it takes the b5 square away from White's pieces and lets Black choose any set-up afterwards. Play through the English Attack, the classical 6.Bg5 and the Poisoned Pawn on the board.
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The starting position. Choose your moves - at a branching point several continuations are available.
The dimmed moves are the rest of the main line, and the dots mark branching points. Click any move to jump to that position.
From the outside 5...a6 looks like a waste of time: the pawn develops nothing and does not fight for the centre. But it takes the b5 square away from both the knight and the bishop, and that changes everything. Without the b5 jump White cannot quickly press on d6, and Black gets a free hand.
Black then chooses according to circumstances: ...e5 to grab the centre, or ...e6 for a solid Scheveningen structure. That flexibility made the line the favourite weapon of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov - two world champions with completely different styles.
The variation is named after the Polish-Argentine grandmaster Miguel Najdorf, who brought the system into tournament practice in the middle of the twentieth century.
5...a6 and 6...e5 come at a cost: the d5 square is left without pawn control. The whole fight in the Najdorf revolves around that hole. White wants to plant a piece there and cement the advantage; Black wants to trade off the pieces that aim at it.
Hence moves like 7...Be6, which covers the square, and the typical exchanges on d5. Whoever wins the argument over this one square usually sets the character of the game.
The Najdorf is the most heavily analysed opening in chess history. The Poisoned Pawn line has been calculated by engines dozens of moves deep, and general principles will not save you there: either you know it or you lose.
The practical conclusion is simple. If you want the Najdorf without enormous preparation, choose the ...e5 and ...Be7 set-ups, where the position stays closed and a mistake is not fatal. Leave the forcing lines for later.
White players who do not want a theoretical duel can step aside: the English Attack with 6.Be3 follows clear plans, and the Alapin 2.c3 takes the Najdorf off the board altogether.
These are the main named variations. Click any one of them and it loads straight onto the board above, where you can play it out move by move. The trainer itself holds more lines than this: it also covers main-line continuations and transpositions that have no name of their own.
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The Najdorf Variation (B90) is a modest 5...a6 behind which stands the most analysed line in chess. It starts with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6. Its main branches: English Attack and Classical 6.Bg5.
In the central pawns. In the Najdorf Black usually plays ...e5, takes space and leaves a hole on d5. In the Scheveningen the pawns stand on d6 and e6 - cramped, but without weaknesses.
No. After 6...e6 the game transposes to Scheveningen structures, and 6...Ng4 against 6.Be3 is a sharp line of its own. That flexibility is the whole point of 5...a6.
Partly. The ...e5, ...Be7 and short castling set-ups follow understandable plans. The Poisoned Pawn, on the other hand, rests entirely on the exact move order - do not touch it unprepared.
Either the English Attack with 6.Be3 - a clear plan and little memorising - or avoid the Open Sicilian: the Alapin 2.c3, the Smith-Morra Gambit, or a closed system.
After Miguel Najdorf, the grandmaster who turned the system into a tournament weapon. The move 5...a6 had been seen before, but his games showed what it was for.
Want the tactics that decide these positions? Start with the 12 most common opening traps and tactics for beginners. If you are just starting out, read the rules of chess and how to set up the board.
Pairings are computed by bbpPairings, an open-source engine implementing the Dutch system by FIDE rules: score groups, floats on an odd field, colour alternation. Free to use.
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