Sicilian: how many books are there?

[John Coleman]

For a lecture I'm giving to beginners, does anyone know approximately how many books are available on the Sicilian? Just approximately.

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Sicilian: how many books are there?

Over a thousand?

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Sicilian: how many books are there?

Books on the Sicilian Defence

This is a very interesting question. I have the catalogue of the John G. White Chess Collection and to 1964 there were just 13 cards with titles devoted solely to the Sicilian Defence.

It wasn’t until about 1969 that there was a number of books devoted to particular openings. I have in my collection 32 books on the Sicilian, most of them Batsford editions bought in the 70s and 80s.

I checked the Cleveland Library online for the word “Sicilian”. Along with chess books there are ones on Italian Cooking, Poetry, Kings and Rulers and History. Of interest to us is Chess (76), Sicilian Defense (71), Openings (47), English Opening (33), Dragon Variation (20). I expect that the English Opening appears because it is a reversed Sicilian.

The total then is about 247.

I have also examined one-by-one the 464 entries under “Sicilian” in the Royal Library at The Hague online. It is usually more up-to-date than Cleveland. I found 350 chess books. There will inevitably be duplications and translations. Sicilian men must be considered very sexy by Dutch women because there were any number of Harlequin romances in Dutch with Sicilian in the title!

But no library can have all the books on any one subject.

I would think that saying that there are about 350 books devoted to the Sicilian Defence would be fairly accurate.

I really should be doing my income tax now.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Sicilian: how many books are there?

The Anderson collection of the State Library of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) has about 230 chess titles with the word "Sicilian" in them.
There are about 40 chess titles with the word "Dragon" in them. About the same number with "Najdorf" in the title, but some of them are about the player himself - not on the variation.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Sicilian: how many books are there?

About the same number with "Najdorf" in the title, but some of them are about the player himself - not on the variation.

All I know about the Najdorf is 6. Bg5 is pretty much winning unless black plays the poisoned pawn variation. That cuts down on the amount of reference material I have to remember. I know, chess is not so simple and there are many places to slip up along the road from move 6.