MJMcCready wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 9:00 am
I think you can lose the game in the opening in the Najdorf, which I don't think you can with the Kan.
You can, of course, but i sometimes get the impression that some people when they say that they don't want to learn "reams of theory", actually mean that they don't want to learn any.
Anyone learning a new opening has to accept that from time to time they'll have a few disasters. But ironically in some ways having a few of those occasionally can help on where you really need to direct the work. Whereas the danger in playing the "safe" sicilians is that for all that you may consistently be happy at getting out of the opening in one piece, the long term gains are nowhere near as rewarding. You may just find yourself consistently losing games that take a bit longer, but looking back to realise that you might as well have resigned on move 20 for all the good 'surviving the opening' did for you. Whereas getting through the opening stages in the Najdorf will often give you a real prize at the end of it.
I would also add that there's plenty of scope in the Najdorf to play a variety of variations and make yourself a moving target. The route to success IMO in the Najdorf is not from learning loads of theory, or not really more so than anything else, it is understanding the underlying concepts. But then i committed to it early, and it may be leaving it a bit late to change now! (just don't tell anyone that a large chunk of my (retained) theoretical knowledge is over 25 years old...)