How to learn the Sicilian Najdorf as thoroughly as possible?

I want to thoroughly learn the Najdorf. How should I go about doing this? 

Links to any websites, videos, or online training tools would be appreciated.

Go to a database and find games from the Najdorf tabia - on Chess.com I sort by rating (with the color I'm playing, naturally) and try to pick players whose ideas I've liked in the past (for me, positional players, so Kramnik, Petrosian, and Aronian are top of the list - for aggressive play Fischer, Tal, and Kasparov are all great). After that, you just go through move by move, playing guess-the-move as you go. Once you've played through ~10 games or so, patterns begin to emerge for both sides - weak squares, development patterns, thematic pawn breaks, and, in the Najdorf, thematic sacrifices - take note of these ideas and look for good opportunities to play with them. Learning every sideline is a waste of time (especially in something like the Najdorf whose theory lines go 20 moves and deeper) - if you get the tabia (noting transposition opportunities) plus the strategic themes and understand WHY you're playing each move, you'll know the Najdorf very well. 

One of the things about opening prep is that it's a years long process - you learn each piece of each variation one bit at a time....frontloading rote information is no good. 

To be honest, I really don't think an opening like the Najdorf is the best choice for a player of your rating level. You have to know an inordinate amount of theory, be booked up on all kinds of sidelines, and waste time studying 20+ moves of opening theory when really what you should be doing to get better is learning tactics and maybe some endgame stuff. And at under 1600 level, in my experience hardly anyone plays the Open Sicilian, and even if they do, they won't play the main lines of it, so all your hours of prep will be almost a complete waste of your time.

It might not be useful now but that hardly makes it a waste... I'm not just going to forget everything I learn once I get better. Also learning about various themes and variations for the Najdorf seems like an instructional method for learning middlegame strategy. To be clear the vast majority of my time studying is spent on middlegame and endgame strategy and tactics. I just felt like mixing it up by learning a bit of opening theory. Worst case scenario is that I'm wasting a small amount of time, but I don't think this is the case.

Get better first and then learn the opening. Openings of this much theoretical depth are a very poor choice in my opinion for players beneath Class C-B. I remember when I, as a 1000 type player, studied the Scotch in depth. I bought a video on it, studied the games of Sergey Rublevsky, and thought it would help me win. And it was a complete waste of time. As someone who has improved from 962 U.S.C.F. to 1805 U.S.C.F. in about the last year in a half, I promise you getting ridiculously booked up on highly theoretical openings is absolutely the wrong way to go about improving at chess.

Okay then think of this as a separate hobby. I'm taking a quick break from chess to entertain myself with some najdorf theory.

Do whatever you want. But someday you may end up wishing for your time back. I say you'd be much better off studying tactics and keeping the opening prep to a minimum.

I already do that... Like I said the vast majority of my time is spent on tactics and strategy. This is pretty much my first attempt at learning anything related to opening theory.

Again, it's your choice, but this is not an opening for someone starting out.

Hmmm!

I wish i started learning the Sicilian when i first started playing chess. I think if you a good teacher/coach or training partner it is ok.

I have to admit that i am not sure i still know everything about the Sicilans. But then my opponent has to know more than me! So would say try as they can not konw what you know or do not know. Sure you will be fine as long as do not try it in a tournament until you have more experience with it. And experience is one of the basics to learning to play chess better!

In my opinion it's completely fine even for lower rated players to study openings. Opening study will not only improve your openings, but it is also one of the best ways to learn tactics and strategy. 

I'd say like #3.

I surprisingly improved with learning the openings by heart (Italian, then Scotch, Italian, Slav... Najdorf), going through some games and stuff like this (also playing them in blitz games). I needed some more time to really learn what's the point in Najdorf, some previous games I had were just ridiculous.

So yes, in my experience it's ok. Maybe the only weakness I have sometimes is that when the opponent goes off the beaten track early, I struggle to find the right plan. 

All of you are kamikazes. I'm trying to learn the French Rubinstein and I feel like it's driving me nuts.

Fort Knox or mainline? Once I saw some playing FK, and always do this.

What the heck is Fort Knox?! (I knew this would be hard).

Let's say, ...c5 as soon as possible (as in almost any opening for black, in the other hand).

To learn the Najdorf as thoroughly as possible:

1. Become a grandmaster

2. Become a correspondence player

3. Study what others have written about the Najdorf

4. Come up with your own theories of the opening

5. Test those theories out in elite competition, and be prepared to revise them constantly.

Don't skip any of those steps.

Kasparov once said that nobody below GM level should play the Sicilian. He was overstating things a bit. But the Najdorf in particular is extremely difficult and should probably be left to the professionals (+2100 USCF).

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sicilian+najdorf+books+and+videos

If you can't contain yourself, I'd start playing the Scheveningen systems with the Najdorf move-order.  That way you can slowly acquaint yourself with the gazillion different moves that White can play against the Najdorf, but you'll also have the sturdy e6/d6 pawn structure that can teach you how to play cramped positions and when to open the position in a beneficial way.  Not to mention you don't have to worry about the pesky Keres.

My .02.  

Cute, hicetnunc! 

I just learned a new google command.