Sveshnikov Book

I am looking for a good book explaining the ideas on the Sveshnikov sicilian, more words less text the better (I know hard in a Sicilian defense). The book I have by John Cox is terrible, despite good reviews. Tons of variations with no explanation of the plans or even what is going on. To make matters worse he has never even played the Sveshnikov in a tournment game.

Does anyone have a good book they would like to recommend on the Sveshnikov .

I have and like The Sveshnikov Sicilian by Mikhail Krasenkov.  It's not a very long book, but he does a good job of explaining the general strategic ideas in the opening chapter, and covers the main lines in reasonable detail for a club player.  He is also a frequent player of the opening who learned directly from its namesake.  Might be worth a look.

Is the Cox book really that bad? I have heard most of his works are quite good.

I would normally recommend "The Easiest Sicilian" published by chess stars, but if you think a starting out book is too variation heavy, well, then this might not be the right choice. There was enough explanation to teach me the ideas and plans, and the analysis is very good, but my results with the opening were not great because it is quite a tough opening for players of my level to handle.

To be honest, though, the Sveshnikov is mostly about concrete tactical variations. It breaks almost all the rules of classical chess by accepting a horrid pawn structure, a huge hole on d5, and often an exposed king all in the name of counterplay. I have played both the Svesh and the Najdorf, and I found that the Najdorf, although the most theoretical opening of all, was much more intuitive and easier to handle than the Svesh. My advice for success with this opening is to not worry too much about plans, but instead to have a great memory for long forcing variations, and really make sure you are strong at tactics and long calculations. Black is often living on a knife's edge in this opening.

Thank you for the comments I will probably end up buying The Sveshnikov Sicilian by Mikhail Krasenkov and alot of other Sveshnikov books (it is going to be my weapon against e4 for a long time). The opening fite like a glove, Active pieces, big center and attacking chances. I also have an excellent memory for the lines that are critical.

@Bigty: It is my belief that there are always ideas behind moves it just takes a good author and player to explain them in complicated positions. One of my favorite authors John Watson wrote a 4 volume series on the openings where he goes into the ideas in seemingly mindless positions.

Indeed there are alway ideas, but I think that compared to a lot of openings the Svesh is heavily based on concrete lines due to the sharp and rather unusual nature of the position. I played it for a while using 'The Easiest Sicilian' as my guide, but gave it up at least temporarily because I found that even though I knew many of the themes, the positions never felt natural and I was always living on a knife's edge. It was also quite hard for me to find good moves once I was out of book because the positions just werent like anything I have experienced in other openings, and it takes more skill than I have to play dynamically enough to balance all of black's weaknesses.

I hope it works for you as it is a great opening. Once you have a good understanding of the basics, and if you want to play the main lines, then 'The Easiest Sicilian' would be a good choice. It also provides an ambitious repertoire against the Rossolimo (which you will see a lot!) and other 3rd move deviations.

Alas, Krasenkow's book, while certainly readable, is already outdated. You should supplement it with The Sveshnikov Reloaded by Rogozenko. BTW, I would also check up on Krasenkow in chessgames.com to verify whether he still plays the Sveshnikov. He seemed a lifetime practitioner, but you never know...

Thanks everyone for your thoughtfull comments, I will take a look into (and probably buy) the books mentioned for my repretoire.

i would find a good bookstore or the library , bring your laptop or chessboard and try out a few different books til you find the style you like. also if you bring your laptop with a chess program like chessmaster you could always pgn and notate what you like out of different books.