In chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, B77 is the ECO

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...

 code for the Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack, 9.Bc4 chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

. Also known as the Rauzer

Vsevolod Rauzer

Vsevolod Rauzer is probably best known for his extensive chess opening theory. The Richter–Rauzer Variation of the Sicilian Defence , was named in honor of him and the German master Kurt Richter....

 System or the St George Attack, the Yugoslav Attack begins with the following moves:

1. e4 c5

2. Nf3 d6

3. d4 cxd4

4. Nxd4 Nf6

5. Nc3 g6

6. Be3 Bg7

7. f3 O-O

8. Qd2 Nc6

9. Bc4

Statistically, Chessgames.com

Chessgames.com

ChessGames.com is a large chess community on the Internet, with over 156,000 members. The site maintains a large database of historical chess games where every game has a distinct message board for comments and analysis. Basic membership is free and the site is open to players at all levels of...

's database of nearly 1500 master games shows Win-Draw-Loss percentages for White to be: 46%-25%-29%. Similarly, Mega Database 2002 indicates that white scores 52% while 66%of the over 1200 games were decisive.

One of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

's strongest grandmasters John Emms notes that "I can safely say that the Yugoslav Attack is the ultimate test of the Dragon

Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation

In chess, the Dragon Variation is one of the main lines of the Sicilian Defence and begins with the moves:The name "Dragon" was first coined by Russian chess master and amateur astronomer Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky who noted the resemblance of Black's kingside pawn structure to the constellation...

. White quickly develops his queenside and castles

Castling

Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...

 long before turning his attentions to an all-out assault on the black king. To the untrained eye, this attack can look both awesome and unnerving".

White tries to break open the black kingside and deliver checkmate

Checkmate

Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...

 down the h-file, while Black seeks counterplay on the queenside with sacrificial attacks. Typical white strategies are exchanging dark squared bishops by Be3-h6, sacrificing a pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 and sometimes an exchange on h5, exploiting pressure on the a2-g8 diagonal, and the weakness of the d5 square.

Some typical themes for Black are exchanging White's light-square bishop by Nc6-e5-c4, pressure on the c-file, sacrificing the exchange on c3, advancing the b-pawn and pressuring the long diagonal. White will normally win a straight pawn attack, because Black has given White a hook on g6 to attack. Generally, White will avoid moving their pawns on a2/b2/c2, and so Black's pawn storm is nearly always slower than White's. Black can sometimes obtain an acceptable endgame even after sacrificing the exchange because of White's h-pawn sacrifice and doubled pawns

Doubled pawns

In chess, doubled pawns are two pawns of the same color residing on the same file. Pawns can become doubled only when one pawn captures onto a file on which another friendly pawn resides. In the diagram, the pawns on the b-file and e-file are doubled...

.

The Yugoslav attack with 9. Bc4 results in extremely tactical and decisive battles. White keeps a firm grip on the center while advancing aggressively towards the enemy king with f2-f4-f5 and even g2-g3-g4. However, danger exists in overextending and allowing Black to gain the initiative with a deadly counter-attack. Black's strategy is centered around the half-open

Half-open file

In chess, a half-open file, or semi-open file, is a file with only pawns of one color. The half-open file can provide a line of attack for a player's rook or queen. A half-open file can only be used by the player with no pawns on it....

 c file and his ability to push the a and b pawns. Throughout the entire course of the battle, Black will be looking to break the center with an advance from d6-d5. Black can even sometimes obtain a winning endgame even after sacrificing the exchange, because of White's h-pawn sacrifice, doubled isolated c-pawns and most importantly the lack of mobility of the white Rooks compared to the Black minor pieces.

The Main Line

10. O-O-O

White's most popular choice. In most Yugoslav games, O-O-O, h4 and Bb3 are all played by white but the move order matters a great deal. 10. h4 h5 transposes to the Soltis Variation but avoids the Chinese Dragon (see below), because after 10. h4 Rb8?! 11. h5! is now good for White. 10. Bb3 also transposes into the main lines most of the times but Black has the additional possibility of 10. ... Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 which is known as the Topalov system. Interestingly white's best chances in this line at the moment involve castling short and trying for a positional edge in an atypical fashion in the Yugoslav Attack.

10. ... Rc8 11. Bb3

both players should be alert about move order issues, for example 11. h4? Nxd4! loses a piece after 12. Bxd4 Rxc4 or 12. Qxd4 Ng4! where the triple attack on white's forces guarantees black a decisive material advantage.

11. ... Ne5 12. Kb1

12. h4 h5, commonly known as Soltis Variation is the other main option. There are many ways for white to combat this line, however most of them have been shown to be flawed: 13. g4?! hxg4 where either 14.h5 Nxh5 or 14.f4 Nc4 actually do little to advance White's attack since although the black pawns have advanced, they remain on the board and pose a barrier to the white attack. So White switched to 13. Bg5 Rc5 even now the advance of the g-pawn does not promise White much:14. g4 hxg4 16. f4!? Nc4 17. Qe2 Qc8! a great multi-purpose move which threatens ... Nxb2, increases the pressure on the c-file, prevents f4-f5 and safeguards the passed g4 pawn and Black is actually better now. So White turned to: 14. Kb1 Re8 but theoretically Black is doing fine here. So in search of an advantage White players turned to 12. Kb1, which is probably the most threatening line at the moment.

12. ... Re8!?

A very cryptic move. First lets look at some of Black's standard moves in Dragon to appreciate the move 12. Kb1: 12. ... Qa5? 13. Nd5! loses due to 14. ... Qxd2 15. Nxe7+; 12. ... Nc4 13. Bxc4 Rxc4 14. g4! and White has the advantage since with the king on b1 14. ... b5? loses a pawn to 15. b3!. So Black faces a curious situation: Black's pieces have come to their optimum squares, yet there is no available pawn break for him and 12. ... a5 or 12. ... b5 are fruitless since the former is strongly met by 13. a4! stunting Black's queenside counter play on account of the backward b pawn and the creation of b5 as blockading outpost for a knight, and the latter simply drops a pawn for not nearly enough compensation. So black must consider moving a piece, but if his pieces are already considered to be at their optimum squares, then this worsens his position. This is where one understands the logic of the mysterious rook move, it allows Black to meet Bh6 with ... Bh8 retaining the "Dragon bishop" whilst overprotecting the e7 pawn, so that ... Qa5 is once again possible. This line is very complex and is being contested at the highest levels currently.

Chinese Dragon

The main line with
10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. Kb1 has proven to be so effective over time that some Dragon players have attempted to dodge the line with the interesting 10. ... Rb8!?. This complicated line is known as the Chinese Dragon. The most topical line is currently 11. Bb3!? which is really a degree of prophylaxis designed to prevent the sacrifice of the b-pawn immediately whilst buying time for white. Black now has the move 11. ... Na5!? which both threatens to play 12. ... Nc4 13. Bxc4 bxc4, opening the b-file or just removing the bishop straight off with ... Nxb3. Originally h4 was played in this position, but recently the move 12. Bh6 has come to prominence, leading to a sharp and double-edged game in which Black has good practical chances.

Dragondorf

10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. Kb1 a6!? This was first played by the World Champion M. Botvinnik however it was thought to be too slow. Recently this move is enjoying a comeback due to good practical results for Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...

, a Dragon aficionado and current world number 1 in FIDE ratings.

External links

• ECO B79 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack, 12.h4 Chess ECO Database