Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Thursday
Of all the defenses against 1.e4, the Sicilian Defense has always been top-scorer since the last past decades. A search of 100,000 games from international competition shows that the Sicilian Defense yielded Black 30.3% wins and 34.9% draws. Quite an impressive result for the second player especially against high-level opponents who know how to optimise and exploit their opening initiatives.
The Sicilian Defence, 1.e4 c5, yields more win for Black than others. source: gameknot.com
As one of the mainline variation of the Sicilian Defence, the Dragon Variation is a sharp and reliable defence opening. I personally like the Dragon Variation as Black because it is rich in tactical themes and most of the position gives you promising end game prospects (because in the Sicilian, Black has more center pawns than White). It is also much easier to learn than the Sicilian Najdorf Variation because the plans and strategies are more direct and straight forward. Owing to the resulting sharp and unbalance positions, Black optimizes his chance to play for a win in the complications. Experience has shown that most White players get caught-out from these complications where a minute tempo is very crucial for survival.
With other Dragon Systems, Black can confuse his opponent by adopting crafty move orders to trick him into a transposition where Black is favourable. Good examples of this tricky move orders are the Accelerated Dragon and the Hyper Accelerated Dragon where both aims to side-step the theoretical richness of the Yugoslav Attack.
Need more convincing to play the Dragon? Have a look at the following games and see how you can win with Black using this opening.
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Enter the Dragon
The Classical Dragon starts with the following moves.
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
In this variation, Black fianchettoes a Bishop on g7 square. The name "Dragon" was first coined by Russian Chess Master and amateur astronomer Fedor Dus-Chotimirsky who noted the resemblance of Black's kingside pawn structure to the constellation Draco. Though I can't see it myself, I do believe that The Dragon Variation is one of the sharpest variations of the Sicilian Defence, making it one of the sharpest of all chess openings.
Dragon Relatives
If you are new to Dragon theory it is worth noting that there are about 3 other Dragon opening systems and they are the following:
1. Accelerated Dragon - this opening system features an early ...g6 on the 4th move from Black. An important difference between this line and the Classical Dragon is that Black avoids playing ...d7-d6, so that he can later play ...d7-d5 in one move if possible. Black also avoids the Yugoslav attack, but since White has not been forced to play Nc3 yet, 5.c4 (Maróczy Bind) is possible. Generally, this opening features a more positional style of play, unlike many of the other Sicilian variations. The opening move order for Accelerated Dragon is as follows:
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 g6
2. Hyper Accelerated Dragon - is just a move-order difference of the Accelerated Dragon. Here ...g6 is done earlier on the 2nd move. The idea is just to avoid the possible 3.Bb5 Rossolimo Attack by White, a serious sideline that also boast a lot of theory. As a consequence White at his disposal can steer the game to 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 , which attempts to disrupt Black's normal development. The opening move order for Hyper Accelerated Dragon is as follows:
3. Dragondorf - also called the Dragadorf, is a hybrid Dragon with the Sicilian Najdorf defence. In this system Black plays both ...g6 and ...a6. Theory in this line is still relatively new thus it is yet to be proven if it can widthstand the test of time.
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 g6
2. Hyper Accelerated Dragon - is just a move-order difference of the Accelerated Dragon. Here ...g6 is done earlier on the 2nd move. The idea is just to avoid the possible 3.Bb5 Rossolimo Attack by White, a serious sideline that also boast a lot of theory. As a consequence White at his disposal can steer the game to 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 , which attempts to disrupt Black's normal development. The opening move order for Hyper Accelerated Dragon is as follows:
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 g6
3. Dragondorf - also called the Dragadorf, is a hybrid Dragon with the Sicilian Najdorf defence. In this system Black plays both ...g6 and ...a6. Theory in this line is still relatively new thus it is yet to be proven if it can widthstand the test of time.
The move order is as follows:
1.e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
6. Be3 a6
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