Reclaiming the Blind Spot: Jobava and Ceres Take On the Anti-Sicilians
Every Sicilian player has felt it: years invested in the Najdorf, the Dragon, or the Classical Sicilian, only to face a 2.Nc3 or 2.c3 from an opponent who clearly knows the position better. The statistics explain why. The Open Sicilian shows up far more often across a career than any single Anti-Sicilian system, so the experience naturally tilts away from these sidelines.
That imbalance is exactly where games get lost — not to superior chess, but to superior preparation in territory the Black player rarely visits.
"Anti-Sicilians for Black" by GM Baadur Jobava and IM Dragos Ceres turns that imbalance around. Built on the move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6, the course gives Najdorf, Dragon, and Classical players a single, coherent answer to every White system that tries to dodge 3.d4: the Moscow, the Alapin, 2.Nc3, the setup with 3.Bc4, the Delayed Alapin, the Anti-Najdorf 4.Qxd4, the Morra and different gambits.
Rather than treating these as a defensive chore, Jobava and Ceres present them as recoverable ground — lines with real theoretical depth, where a well-prepared Black player can drag the opponent onto unfamiliar territory instead of the reverse.
What the Repertoire Looks Like
A few choices define the character of the work. Against the Moscow, the authors recommend 3...Bd7 and, after 4.Bxd7+, the rarer 4...Nxd7 over the far more common 4...Qxd7 — a small move-order decision that already reduces the chance of facing prepared theory.
Against the Alapin, instead of the standard 3...Qxd5 (played in roughly 63,000 games against the gambit's 1,600), they offer 3...Nf6!?, a fully sound pawn sacrifice that hands Black the initiative rather than a slightly worse structure.
Against 2.Nc3, the choice of 2...a6 takes the sting out of the Grand Prix Attack. And in the heavily analyzed Anti-Najdorf with 4.Nxd4 followed by 5.f3, the authors meet 6.Nb3 with the principled 6...d5!, backed by a substantial stack of fresh novelties.
The course is also explicit about what it is not: a patchwork of independent sidelines. Every recommendation is selected to share structures and plans across chapters, so preparation against one Anti-Sicilian reinforces understanding of the others.
Course Structure
- 20 Chapters
- 30 test positions
- 5 model games
- Memory Booster
- To Go Version of every chapter
- Video instruction
- Multilingual PGN availability (English, German, French, Spanish)
A Platinum Course: Guaranteed Evolution
As a Platinum Course, "Anti-Sicilians for Black" is not a static theoretical product. It is a living repertoire with guaranteed long-term development.
Updates (Real Value): Free updates are provided every 6 months for 2 years. The timing depends on the release month and is always exactly 6 months apart. All updates are automatically included. Each update delivers substantial, practical improvements, not cosmetic changes.
What updates may include (always something important):
- New theoretical developments
- New video explanations
- New chapters
- New model games
- New exercises
- New learning tools
This is not a theoretical gamble. It is a framework designed to handle every White attempt to dodge 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 — the Moscow, the Alapin, 2.Nc3, the Italian setup, the Anti-Najdorf, and the rare gambits that appear in practical play. The course systematically neutralizes each approach, ensuring no surprise can derail your preparation.
User involvement: Users can ask questions and upload their own games. The strongest and most instructive material is selected and integrated into future updates.
Where This Fits Alongside the Najdorf
GM Nijat Abasov is the author of "1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 - Full Repertoire for Black", in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2. That series shares the same 2...d6 move order and builds the Najdorf itself for the moments White heads into 3.d4. It is not a connected course — Abasov's repertoire is an independent work by a different author — but it sits naturally alongside this one for any Sicilian player assembling a full answer to 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6.
Variation Map
2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ (Moscow)
- 3...Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Nxd7 5.O-O Ngf6 6.Qe2 e6 → Chapter 10
- 6.Re1 and other deviations → Chapter 9
- 4.c4 and other 4th-move tries → Chapter 8
3.Bc4 (Italian-style setup)
- 3...Nf6 4.d3 Nc6 → Chapter 11
3.c3 (Delayed Alapin)
- 3...Nf6 → Chapter 12
3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 (Hungarian)
- 4...Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 (historical main line) → Chapters 3–4
- 5.Qd3 (Maroczy setup) → Chapter 5
- 5.Qe3 g6 → Chapter 6
- 5.Qd3 (alternative path) → Chapter 7
3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 (Anti-Najdorf)
- 5...e5 6.Nb3 d5! → Chapter 2
- 5.Bd3!? → Chapter 1
2.Nc3
- 2...a6 → Chapters 15–17
2.c3 (Alapin)
- 2...d5 3.exd5 Nf6!? (gambit) → Chapters 13–14
2.c4 and other positional sidelines → Chapter 18
2.b4 and gambits → Chapter 19
2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 (Morra Gambit) → Chapter 20
Turning the Gap Into Ground of Your Own Choosing
What makes this repertoire distinct is its refusal to treat the Anti-Sicilians as a secondary concern. Each system gets the same depth of analysis as a main-line Sicilian battle, with the explicit goal of shifting the experience gap in Black's favor — one prepared idea at a time.