This book covers the Rauzer variation of the Sicilian. From the preface:
You are holding in your hands book 12 of the series ?Opening for White According to Anand ? 1.e4?. It is devoted to one of the main lines of the Sicilian Defence, beginning with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6. Strangely enough, this system has not acquired yet a universally acknowledged name. It is worth mentioning that the scheme, which we recommend against the majority of the other Sicilian variations in our books, the set-up Be3-f3-Qd2 would not work against this system, because of quite concrete reasons. After 6.Be3 Ng4, as well as in case of 6.f3 e5, Black solves his opening problems rather easily.
Meanwhile, after the move we recommend ? 6.Bg5, quite irrevocably accepted by contemporary theory as the most dangerous for Black, there would be no more terminological ambiguities ? the Rauzer Attack is on the board. This famous theoretician laid down the foundations of the contemporary treatment of this opening system back in the 30ies of the past century. We must also mention here Alexander Alekhine who played this system numerous times with White, although not against the best players at the time. Many opening variations, which are analyzed in this book, were tested at the highest level, up to the matches for the World Championship, already around the year 1950. The nameless opening system with 2...d6 and 5...Nc6 was considered quite deservedly to be the basic in the Sicilian defence and only later, around the change of the millennium, stepped aside as the most popular in favour of other more fashionable lines.
