The Open Sicilian: Dragon
December 23, 2008
The Open Sicilian: Dragon system (as White) Yugoslav Attack variations
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6. -The same position can be achieved by transposition in the Accelerated and Hyper-accelerated Dragons, e.g. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 where … Bg7 is met by Be3 and … Nf6 is met by f3. In combating the Accelerated and Hyper-accelerated Dragons, White is offered the chance to play c4 with the Maroczy bind, but in my experience, the positional advantage provided by this move is undermined to a noticeable extent by the greater knowledge of variations necessary to take full advantage of the plus.
6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 – And now Black has the option to either immediately to play … O-O or … Nc6, though typically the … Nc6 lines transpose right into the … O-O lines.
7. … O-O (7 … Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O [... Bd7 9. Bc4 O-O 10. O-O-O transposes to familiar lines] 9. Bc4 transposes to 7 … O-O lines) 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 -Also playable is 9. O-O-O with great results for White but less dynamic games. For Black’s 9th move replies, he is offered a wide variety of continuations. The primary one is 9 … Bd7, but many others are almost as viable.
On 9 … Nd7 10. O-O-O Nb6 11. Bb3 Na5 12. Qe3 (Fischer-Purevhav 1962). On 9 … Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Be6 11. Bb3 (Fischer-Larsen 1958) On 9 … Qa5. On 9 … a5 10. h4 Ne5 11. Be2 (Fischer-D Byrne 1963). On 9 … a6 10. O-O-O Qc7 (10 … Ne5 11. Bb3) 11. Bb3 (Fischer-Stephans 1957). On 9 …Na5 10. Be2. On 9 … Ne5 10. Bb3.
9 … Bd7 10. h4 -10. O-O-O and 10. Bb3 are both very playable but 10. h4 puts the test to Black’s resolve fastest. There are 4 primary responses of Black to White’s challenge. on 10 … Ne5 11. Bb3 Rc8 12. O-O-O Nc4 13. Bxc4 Rxc4 14. h5 (Kasparov-Piket 1989). On 10 … h5 11. O-O-O Ne5 12. Bb3 Rc8 13. Bg5 Rc5 14. Rhe1 (Karpov-Sosonko 1979). On 10 … Qa5 11. O-O-O.
Best is 10 … Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 (11 … Qa5 12. h5! Nxh5 13. g4 Nf6 14. O-O-O [Tal-Wade 1966]) 12. O-O-O Nc4 13. Bxc4 Rxc4 14. h5 Nxh5 15. g4 Nf6 16. Nde2 Re8 (16 … Qa5 17. Bh6 Bxh6 18. Qxh6 Rfc8 19. Rd3!! and White went on to win [Karpov-Korchnoi 1974]) 17. Bh6 Bh8 18. e5 Nxg4 19. exd6! with a powerful attack for White (Ostojic-Tarjan 1974).
White’s plan in Dragon games is typically to pry open the h-file with a Pawn sacrifice and then often a Rook sacrifice and end with a mate along that open file. The key principle of winning games for White is landing the first shot against the Black King. With every extra piece or point of pressure along White’s Queenside, Black is stealing the advantage, so White’s Kingside thrust must be accurate and strong to garner the full point. By playing the standard Yugoslav lines as opposed to many of the other ones where more positional games result, games often end directly in mate than resignation due to a lost Rook-Pawn endgame. Effectively, by choosing to play these lines, White trades in a possible small positional plus gained in 9. O-O-O lines where play against an isolated d-pawn can occur for better pressure along the Kingside with 9. Bc4, pre-empting the possible … d5 push.
