Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation
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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...

, the Dragon Variation is one of the main lines of the Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...

 and begins with the moves:
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6


In the Dragon, Black fianchetto
Fianchetto
In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward....

es his bishop on the h8–a1 diagonal. The line is one of the sharpest variations of the Sicilian Defence, making it one of the sharpest of all chess openings
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...

.

The modern form of the Dragon was originated by German master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

 Louis Paulsen
Louis Paulsen
Louis Paulsen was a German chess player.In 1860s and 1870s, he was among the top five players in the world. He was a younger brother of Wilfried Paulsen....

 around 1880. It was played frequently by Henry Bird
Henry Bird
Henry Edward Bird was an English chess player, and also an outstanding author and accountant...

 that decade, then received general acceptance around 1900 when played by Harry Nelson Pillsbury
Harry Nelson Pillsbury
Harry Nelson Pillsbury , was a leading chess player. At age 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time , but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.- Early life :Pillsbury was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, moved to New York City...

 and other masters.

The name "Dragon" was first coined by Russian chess master
Chess master
A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

 and amateur astronomer Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky who noted the resemblance of Black's kingside pawn structure to the constellation Draco
Draco (constellation)
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. Draco is circumpolar for many observers in the northern hemisphere...

.

The Yugoslav Attack

The Yugoslav attack is considered to be the main line that gives maximum chances for both sides, it continues:
6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3

The point of White's last move is to safeguard e4 and to stop Black from playing ...Nf6–g4 harassing White's dark-squared bishop. Note that Black cannot play 6.Be3 Ng4?? immediately because of 7.Bb5+ winning a piece.
7... 0-0
8. Qd2 Nc6

and now there are fundamentally two distinct branches with 9. 0-0-0 leading to more positional play while 9. Bc4 leads to highly tactical double-edged positions.

The Yugoslav attack exemplifies the spirit of the Dragon with race-to-mate pawn storms on opposite sides of the board. White tries to break open the Black kingside and deliver mate 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 material to open the h-file, and exploiting pressure on the a2–g8 diagonal and the weakness of the d5 square.

Black will typically counterattack on the queenside, using his queenside pawns, rooks, and dark squared bishop. He sometimes plays h5 (the Soltis Variation) to defend against White's kingside attack. Other typical themes for Black are exchanging
Exchange (chess)
In the tactics and strategy in the board game of chess, an exchange or trade of chess pieces is series of closely related moves, typically sequential, in which the two players capture each others pieces. Any types of pieces except the kings may possibly be exchanged, i. e. captured in an...

 White's light-square bishop by Nc6–e5–c4, pressure on the c-file, sacrificing the exchange on c3, advancing the b-pawn and pressure on the long diagonal. Black will generally omit ...a6, because White will generally win a straight pawn attack, because Black has given White a hook on g6 to attack. Generally, White will avoid moving the pawns on a2/b2/c2, and so Black's pawn storm will nearly always be slower than White's on the kingside. Black can frequently obtain an acceptable endgame even after sacrificing the exchange because of White's h-pawn sacrifice and doubled pawns.

Yugoslav Attack with 9. 0-0-0

After years of believing White's best play and chance for advantage lay in the main line with 9. Bc4, this older main line made a major comeback. White omits Bc4 in order to speed up the attack. It used to be thought that allowing 9...d5!? here allows Black to equalize easily but further analysis and play have proved that things are not so clear cut. In fact, recently Black experienced a time of difficulty in the 9...d5 line facing a brilliant idea by Ivanchuk which seemed to give White the advantage. In fact some Black players began experimenting with 9...Bd7 and 9...Nxd4. Fortunately for Black, the 9...d5 line has been doing better in practice. A brilliancy found for White one day is soon enough overturned by some new resource for Black. A case in point is the following line where the evaluation of a major line was turned upside down overnight because of an ingenious queen sacrifice played by GM
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....

 Mikhail Golubev
Mikhail Golubev
Mikhail Golubev is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster , journalist and author.-Chess career:He played several times in Ukrainian Chess Championship, and shared first place at Yalta 1996...

, an expert on the Dragon Variation: 9. 0-0-0 d5!? 10. Kb1!? Nxd4 11. e5! Nf5! 12. exf6 Bxf6 13. Nxd5 Qxd5! 14. Qxd5 Nxe3 15. Qd3 Nxd1 16. Qxd1 Be6!, where Black has sufficient compensation for the queen.

Yugoslav Attack with 9. Bc4

The purpose of 9.Bc4 is to prevent Black from playing the freeing move ...d6–d5. The variations resulting from this move are notorious for having been heavily analysed. In addition to covering d5, White's light-squared bishop helps cover White's queenside and controls the a2–g8 diagonal leading to Black's king. However, the bishop is exposed on c4 to an attack by a rook on c8, and usually has to retreat to b3, giving Black more time to organize his attack. Common in this line is an exchange sacrifice on c3 by Black to break up White's queenside pawns, and sacrifices to open up the long diagonal for Black's bishop on g7 are also common. An example of both ideas is the line 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 Nc4 13.Bxc4 Rxc4 14.h5 Nxh5 15.g4 Nf6 16.Bh6 Nxe4! 17.Qe3 Rxc3!.

The Soltis Variation was the main line of the Dragon up until the late 1990s. Garry Kasparov played the move three times in the 1995 World Championship
Classical World Chess Championship 1995
The Classical World Chess Championship 1995, known at the time as the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, was held from September 10, 1995, to October 16, 1995, on the 107th floor of the former World Trade Center in New York City. Garry Kasparov, the defending champion, played Viswanathan Anand, the...

 against Viswanathan Anand, scoring two wins and a draw. The line goes 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 h5 (the key move, holding up White's kingside pawn advance). Other important deviations for Black are 10...Qa5 and 12...Nc4. More recently, White players have often avoided the Soltis by playing 12.Kb1, which has proven so effective that Black players have in turn tried to dodge this with 10...Rb8, known as the Chinese Dragon.

The Classical Variation

The Classical Variation, 6. Be2, is the oldest White response to the Dragon Variation. It is the second most common White response to the Dragon behind the Yugoslav Attack. After 6... Bg7, White has two main continuations:
  • After 7. Be3 Nc6 8. 0-0 0-0, White's two main responses are 9.Nb3 and 9.Qd2. The knight move is a very common one in the Classical Variation and Qd2 is well met with 9...d5.

  • After 7. 0-0 he has a choice of e3 and g5 for his bishop. If he places it on e3, the game will usually transpose into the lines above. In his book Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon, Andrew Martin calls Be3 "the traditional way of handling the variation", and describes Bg5 as being "much more dangerous" and "White's best chance to play for a win in the Classical Dragon." As with Be3, after Bg5, White will normally place his knight on b3, avoiding an exchange on d4.

The Levenfish Variation

The Levenfish Variation, 6. f4, is named after Russian GM Grigory Levenfish
Grigory Levenfish
Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish was a leading Jewish Russian chess grandmaster of the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion - in 1934 and 1937. In 1937 he tied a match against future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik...

 who recommended it in the 1937 Russian Chess Yearbook. It is not currently very common in the highest levels in chess. White prepares 7. e5 attacking Black's f6-knight therefore in the pre-computer era 6... Nc6 or 6... Nbd7 were considered mandatory to meet the Levenfish variation. However it transpired that after 6... Bg7 7. e5 Nh5 8. Bb5 Bd7 9. e6 fxe6 10. Nxe6 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3 Qc8 Black might be even better.

The Harrington–Glek Variation

The Harrington–Glek Variation is another option for White. Named after Grandmaster Igor Glek
Igor Glek
Igor Vladimirovich Glek , is a Russian chess master, coach, theorist, writer and organiser. He now lives in Essen, Germany and has mainly resided there since 1994....

 who has spent serious time evaluating the resulting positions for White. 6. Be3 Bg7 7. Be2 0-0 8. Qd2!? GM John Emms wrote that "Although it's difficult to beat the Yugoslav in terms of sharp, aggressive play, 7.Be2 0-0 8.Qd2!? also contains a fair amount of venom ... White's plans include queenside castling and a kingside attack. And there's a major plus point in that it's much, much less theoretical!"

After the main moves 8... Nc6 9. 0-0-0 we reach a tabiya for the position.

Here Black has tested several options and here they are listed in order of popularity:
  • 9... Nxd4 This move can lead to both positional and attacking chances for both sides. White must keep aware that Black may have opportunities to offer an exchange sacrifice on c3 in order to exploit the unprotected e4 pawn. 10.Bxd4 Be6 11.Kb1! a good preparatory move in many lines of the Sicilian Dragon. White wants to be able to play Nd5 if the situation becomes conducive. White's king is also getting away from the open c-file which is where much of Black's counterplay can develop. 11...Qa5 With this move we reach a position where chances are roughly balanced and play can take on a life of its own.

  • 9... Bd7 This move allows Black to keep all his pieces on the board to mount an attack. 10.h4! h5! Black needs to keep White's pawns from making a breaking capture. 11.f3 Rc8 12.Kb1 Ne5 13.Bg5! Black can now go for broke with 13...b5!? with an interesting position to contest with over the board.

  • 9... Ng4 This move is played to pick up the bishop pair by exploiting the absence of f3 in White's opening. White is usually fine with allowing the trade of bishop for knight considering that his light-square bishop does little in this line in comparison with the f6-knight's defensive abilities and White also will gain the use of f2–f3 to drive Black back after he recaptures with his bishop. 10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.f3 Bd7 12.Kb1 Ne5 13.b3! Rc8 14.h4 Re8! Again, both sides have good chances.

  • 9... d5!? A pawn sacrifice similar to lines in the more common Yugoslav mainlines. 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Qxd5 Qc7! giving up two rooks for the queen but keeping attacking chances. 14.Qxa8! Bf5 15.Qxf8+ Kxf8 16.Bd3! Be6 17.Kb1

  • 9... a6 10.Kb1 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5 12.h4! h5 13.f3 Be6 14.g4! J.Van der Wiel vs. H. Eidam, Gran Canaria 1996.

Other options

Other options on White's sixth move include 6. Bc4, 6. f3, and 6. g3.

When Black adopts the Dragon formation without 2...d6, White must watch out for ...d5 which often immediately equalizes. Lines where Black does this include the Accelerated Dragon
Accelerated Dragon
The Accelerated Dragon or Accelerated Fianchetto is a variant of the Sicilian Defence, a chess opening, which begins with the moves:-Main line:One of the main lines continues:...

 (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6) and Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6).

Another option for Black is to use play what has been called the "Dragondorf", which combines ideas from the Dragon with those of the Najdorf Variation. While this line maybe played via the Dragon move order (see the Yugoslav attack with 9.Bc4). Black can arrive at it with a Najdorf move order: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 g6 (or 5...g6 6.Be3 a6), with the idea of Bg7 and Nbd7. Such a move order would be used to try to avoid a Yugoslav type attack; for instance, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6, White could play 6.Be2 or 6.f4. In both cases, especially the latter, a Yugoslav style attack loses some momentum. Usually the bishop is more ideally placed on c4, where it can pressure f7 and help defend the white king (though the 9.0-0-0 variation of the Dragon shows that this is not completely necessary), and if White plays f4 and then castles queenside, he must always be on guard for Ng4 ideas, something which the move f3 in traditional Dragon positions usually discourages. Nonetheless, a Yugoslav style attack is still playable after both 6.Be2 g6 or 6.f4 g6.

Some famous exponents of the Dragon are Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....

, Andrew Soltis
Andrew Soltis
Andrew Eden Soltis is a chess Grandmaster, author and columnist.He won at Reggio Emilia 1971–72 and was equal first at New York 1977. He was awarded the International Master title in 1974 and became a Grandmaster in 1980...

, Jonathan Mestel
Jonathan Mestel
Andrew Jonathan Mestel is Professor of applied mathematics at Imperial College London who works on magnetohydrodynamics and biological fluid dynamics...

, Chris Ward
Chris Ward (chess player)
Chris G Ward is a British chess Grandmaster , chess coach, and author. He won the British Championship in 1996, earning the GM title in the process. He is the author of two well-received books on a variation of the Sicilian Defence known as the Dragon Variation, in addition to a number of other...

, Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov
Sergei Tiviakov is a naturalised Dutch chess Grandmaster.Tiviakov won the Dutch Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, in Plovdiv, he won the European Individual Chess Championship with 8.5/11....

, Alexei Fedorov
Alexei Fedorov
Alexei Fedorov is a chess grandmaster. Until 1992 he played for the Soviet Union, then briefly for Russia and from 1993 for the Belarus chess association....

, Mikhail Golubev
Mikhail Golubev
Mikhail Golubev is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster , journalist and author.-Chess career:He played several times in Ukrainian Chess Championship, and shared first place at Yalta 1996...

 the late Tony Miles
Tony Miles
Anthony John Miles was an English chess Grandmaster.- Early achievements in chess :Miles was born in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham...

 and Eduard Gufeld
Eduard Gufeld
Eduard Yefimovich Gufeld was a Soviet International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess author.By the late 1950s he established himself as one of the strongest players in the world...

. Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 used the Dragon with success as a surprise weapon against world title challenger Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....

 in 1995 but did not use it subsequently. The Dragon saw its popularity declining in the late 1990s as a result of White resuscitating the old line with 9.0-0-0, however recently there has been a resurgence with moves such as the Chinese Dragon 10.0-0-0 Rb8!? and an injection of fresh ideas in the 9.0-0-0 line by Dragon devotees.

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
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...

 has ten codes for the Dragon Variation, B70 through B79. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6, there is:
  • B70 5.Nc3 g6
  • B71 5.Nc3 g6 6.f4 (Levenfish
    Grigory Levenfish
    Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish was a leading Jewish Russian chess grandmaster of the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion - in 1934 and 1937. In 1937 he tied a match against future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik...

    Variation)
  • B72 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3
  • B73 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 Nc6 8.0-0 (Classical Variation)
  • B74 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 Nc6 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nb3
  • B75 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 (Yugoslav Attack)
  • B76 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0
  • B77 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4
  • B78 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0
  • B79 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Qa5 11.Bb3 Rfc8 12.h4

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