Dear Chess Friends! 

Today I want to tell you about one of the most frequently used lines in Sicilian Defense - Najdorf Defense.

The opening is named after the Polish-Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf, although he was not the first strong player who used it.

Usually, it starts with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 and this is where White has several options and Black continues either e7-e6 or e7-e5, depending on what exactly White chooses. However, Najdorf is more about a pawn structure, not the exact move order. That’s why, sometimes you may meet Najdorf with black knight on c6.

Najdorf is either one of these two pawn structures.

Pawn structure defines the plan, White tries to attack the d6-pawn or to create a passed pawn on the d-file, while Black is looking for a kingside attack mainly.

This opening became popular after a huge number of strong GMs started playing it successfully. Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov were among them. Najdorf is also popular nowadays – Carlsen, Grishchuk, Ding Liren, Vachier-Lagrave and Aronian play it regularly.

Why do chess players like this opening? Well, there are several reasons. First of all, it’s a complex opening which offers good winning chances for both sides. Secondly, according to the main theory Black is able to equalize the position in Najdorf Variation, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t lose the game.