Tournaments Books

People who opt to play 2.c3 against the sicilian, usually prefer to avoid reams of variations and the opponents' home preparations. 2.c3 preference against the sicilain is a quite modest but sound positional response,which requires both sides to demonstrate high positional skills and not just strike with well prepared fireworks. Chandler's book crucially misses the concept of playing this 2.c3 solid alternative to regular sicilian.
Instead of filling the pages with endless variations ( not necessarily accurate) which end with theoretical evaluations of =+, += , +/- etc' ) the focus should be on understanding the long term plans, mentioning the tactical features of the typical positions, explaining the likely ending to come...
I was really disappointed when I first received this book.
I am not a patzer ( 2130 Israeli rating, 2170 fide) who needs superficial simplification of the opening, but a player who wants a reliable preparation for the most popular response to 1.e4. This book is maybe good for IMs and more or people who are very well experienced in this opening and only desire to examine variations mentioned in the book. However, also then the variations are not analyzed to the end and the authoer avoids any clear cuts conclusions about main lines. for example ( e4 c5 2.c3 nf6 3.e5 nd5 4.d4 c:d 5.nf3 e6 6.c:d b6 7. nc3 n:n 8.b:c qc7 9.bd2 bb7 10.bd3 d6 11.0-0 nd7 12.re1 d:e5 13.n:e5 n:n 14.r:e5 bd6 14.rh5 g6 15.rh3) the author claims for small advantage for white with no real basis and further analysis to support it. This evaluation can be true but I could see variation as well as in NCO ( nunn chess opening book) with the similar evaluation and NO explanation...
In short, if I intend to well prepare 2.c3 for long term to survive the trendy likely fashions to come, this isn't going to do this job for me...
E-mail me with better suggestion to learn the Alapin variation...

I've been reading golf books for thirty years and this one has to be in the top five of the worst I've ever read. As I was reading this I noticed that I was reading the same paragraph, word for word, only in different chapters. If you want to read good books on Pinehurst stick with anything by Lee Pace.