After the release of my Najdorf repertoire for Chessable I received a lot of positive feedback – people were happy with what I managed: to condense the Najdorf to a manageable size.

You can read the details in my previous post where I outlined my principles and selected lines. They appear to have stricken a chord with my students – with emphasis on understanding rather than memorisation it seems that I have made the Najdorf much more approachable.

With Chessable’s video sync feature in full operation the next step for the repertoire was to produce video explanations for the material. So at the end of April I sat down and recorded more than 11 hours of video material.

In the video course I took special care to take a look at the problem moves my students have encountered. By carefully checking the situations where the students have made the most mistakes I paid special attention to these positions and tried to explain them as thoroughly as possible. Often I drew parallels between similar lines or where ideas from one line could be implemented in another (like the …Qb8 idea in the 6 Be2 and 6 g3 lines), thus trying to clarify any confusion and to aid the learning process.

Another bonus for the video material is that I took the time to analyse all the model games I provided for the repertoire. The purpose of these games was to explore typical Najdorf positions, themes and maneuvers. Even though the games not always correspond to the actual repertoire lines, their intent is to give you a feeling for the Najdorf and I tried to convey this in my video analysis.

I am very satisfied with the work I did and I believe this video update fittingly complements the written commentary. However, none of this would have been possible without the professional help of David, Chessable’s CEO and the studio in his office in Swindon, the lovely English town where he resides. Thank you, David!

The Najdorf Sicilian: Simplified is out on Chessable