On Nov 25, 2:11 pm, "Chess One" wrote:
"Taylor Kingston" wrote in message
A difficult line to be sure, but it can't be all that bad. The list
of those who have essayed it as Black reads like a "Who's Who" of 20th
century chess: Fischer, Korchnoi, Bronstein, Geller, Gligoric, Euwe,
Portisch, Najdorf, Panno, Stein, Hort, Ribli, Mecking, Hübner, Timman,
Nunn, Tukmakov, Savon, Kasparov et al.

**Of course it is not bad if you have great skill and knowledge. But my
specific interest, as above, is if anyone here actually plays it [or has it
played against them regularly] and then how bad is it? What if you are a
1600-1700 player, eg, do you get away with it, or do you get into awful
trouble because of white's advanced development? As a Sicilian 'punch' I
would suspect it would have been more popular, but even after several
hundred correspondance games, no-one choses it, not 1400 nor 2800
opponenets. PI

Speaking from my own experience of about 35 years of USCF-rated
play, I recall very few if any club or correspondence players of my
acquaintance who played the poisoned pawn line. I'm referring both to
games I observed and games I played. The opportunity seldom arose in
my games, since I only played the Najdorf once as Black (back in 1973)
and tended not to allow it when playing White.
Perhaps Fischer's calamity with it in the 11th game of the 1972 WCh
match scared club players off. However, it may simply not have been
fashionable in my clubs; perhaps others have seen it often.