Download PGN of June '13 Dragon Sicilian games
>> Previous Update >>
Accelerated Dragon 7 Bc4 [B35]
What a brilliant way to kick off this month's update is the fantastically entertaining blitz game Morozevich - Carlsen. Okay we all know that Magnus is no slouch in the tactics department but this game has the pure look of 'hacker supreme' against 'positional master'. The irresistible force coming up against the immovable object! So it kicks off 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.0-0 0-0 9.Bb3 d6 10.h3 Bd7 leading to the Accelerated Dragon position that has been requested and investigated quite a bit on our site in recent months. With 5 minutes each though, White eschews the 11 Re1 positional approach and sets about steamrolling his opponent with 11.f4:
             |
Following 11...Nxd4 12.Bxd4 Bc6 13.Qd3 Nd7 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Nd5 Qc5+ 16.Kh1 e6 17.Nc3 Nf6 18.Rad1 Rad8 he doesn't hesitate with 19.f5 and trust me, the rest is pure drama! Magnus shows tremendous understanding throughout, barring one or two indiscretions, but is that enough to ruin everything against an Alexander Morozevich hell bent on checkmate? In case you didn't know the result, I'm not even going to spoil it for you by telling you. Quite simply a must watch!
Yugoslav Attack 9 g4 [B76]
Following 9.g4 Be6 10.Nxe6 fxe6 11.0-0-0 Ne5 12.Be2 Qc8 13.h4 Nc4 14.Bxc4 Qxc4 15.Bh6, the game Petr - Kanter sees 15...Ne8 make its debut on our site:
|
|
although I have to be honest and say I'm not sure that it is going to be that relevant in the overall scheme of things! Actually Black does more than hold his own in this game, but there is an early improvement that might put a spanner in his works. Still that's the Dragon for you.
Yugoslav Attack 9 0-0-0 d5 10 Kb1 [B76]
It was nice to see a couple of Dragons being played at the recent Tal Memorial event, and in particular the demonstration that 2760s still have faith in it in slow play games! I won't claim that Andreikin - Morozevich was a thriller as arguably White bottled out and Black expertly neutralised a non-critical challenge. Still, with 9.0-0-0 d5 10.Kb1 Nxd4 11.e5 Nf5 12.exf6 exf6, it is clear that Black was ready for the complications:
|
|
it's just that 13.Nxd5 Nxe3 14.Qxe3 Be6 15.Bc4 f5 16.Nc3 didn't really deliver!
Yugoslav Attack 9 0-0-0 d5 with 12...Bxd4 [B76]
The position below looks pretty standard and here we have only investigated several White tries so far... but here it's not his move!
|
|
That's right, in Akopian,Vl-Mamedov after 9.0-0-0 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Bd4 Bxd4 13.Qxd4, presumably confused with the variation 13...Qb6 14 Na4 Qc7, White makes the mistake of meeting 13...Qc7 with 14.Na4 anyway, effectively leaving himself a tempo down on a main line. Sure, anyone can forget their theory, but you wouldn't expect someone just short of 2700 to make such an error. He does though, and is consequently punished superbly by his very on-the-ball opponent. A lesson to be learned though, and a reminder of why the Dragon remains the sharpest opening around. As White or Black, you can't go wasting tempi!
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Nxd4 [B77]
We are of course talking 9.Bc4 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Be6 11.Bb3 and after the relative excitement that 11...Rc8 brought us, in Papp,Ga-Goumas,G we are back to the more mundane 11..Qa5 12.0-0-0 Rfc8 13.Kb1. In this encounter though we see the trade of bishops occur slightly earlier than usual and after 13...Bxb3 White opts to recapture with the a-pawn:
|
|
This is relatively rare and I think that the game annotations show why. Mr Goumas had his own ideas though, which unfortunately saw him suffering for a long time in a rook and pawn endgame.
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Chinese Variation [B78]
In annotating the game Mamedov - Can, it hit me just how far the theory of this system has developed. There are several branches earlier on, but already 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.Bb3 Na5 11.0-0-0 Rb8 12.g4 b5 13.Bh6 Bxh6 14.Qxh6 b4 15.Nd5 Nxb3+ 16.Nxb3 Nxd5 17.exd5 has received plenty of air time on ChessPublishing. Following 17...Rb6 18.h4 e5 19.Nd2 it's almost like the game starts for Black on move 19!
|
|
Well if so, I'm afraid that Black didn't start the proceedings well in this game as 19...f5? just doesn't work out very well at all. Yep; a case of from a sharp opening, into a grim endgame fairly quickly. Back to the drawing board or possibly more on 19...Ra6. We shall see!
Thanks for watching everyone! See you soon, Chris
>> Previous Update >>
To get in touch with me subscribers can email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com.