Download PGN of July '12 Dragon Sicilian games
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Accelerated Dragon Maroczy Bind [B38]
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For the first 17 moves Navara - Svidler was pretty standard stuff. In truth even 17...h5, leading to the above position, isn't new but it was interesting to see how Black's position would hold up in a tussle between two 2700+ players. The whole idea of a ...Kh7, ...Qd8-h8 manoeuvre is a fascinating one but the most interesting thing was seeing Black engineer the potentially weakening ...f5 break. The assumption remains that White has a slight edge due to his space afforded to him by his bind, but there still seems to be bucket loads of draws in this variation. Hence it is a reasonably solid option for Black, but with little changing, the relative coverage on this site is unlikely to drastically increase.
Yugoslav Attack - Accelerated Dragadorf [B72]
After 5...g6 6 Be3 a6 7 f3 b5, probably the most critical lines are 8 a4 and 8 Qd2 Bb7 9 a4 and it is the latter that occurs in the entertaining encounter Eggleston - Zhou. After 9...e5 10 Nb3 b4, arguably 11 Na2 is more challenging than 11 Nd5, when the fun kicks in with 11...d5!:
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Of course we have seen this variation before, but it looks as though the talented junior Yang Fang has done some home study as his 13...Qb6!? looks quite promising. In fact, Black plays extremely energetically in this game, but sadly he takes his eye off the ball for but a second and disaster strikes. That's life I'm afraid!
Yugoslav Attack 9 g4 Be6 10 Nxe6 [B76]
Pretty much written off as bad (i.e. for White) in old textbooks, it's amazing how popular this whole 9 g4 Be6 10 Nxe6 thing has become. With results looking quite good for White and there being relatively little theory to learn, I guess it is no great surprise that plenty of Yugoslav Attack exponents have been jumping on the bandwagon. Anyway this excellent annotation of Chirila - Jianu by Gawain is full of goodies. First up we see 14 h5! get its debut outing:
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and then we discover why the f3-pawn is no free lunch because of 15 Nd5!. This is definitely worth Black taking seriously, but don't worry because the game's notes offer salvation, with 14...Nc4 being especially interesting.
9 g4 Nxd4 10 Bxd4 Be6 Yugoslav Attack [B76]
In Grischuk - Nakamura the talented young American avoided 9...Be6 10 Nxe6 by trading knights on d4 first. We have looked at this quite a bit on the site, but the 11 Nd5!? that followed is new for us:
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First employed by Karpov, it shows clear similarities to the 9 0-0-0 Nxd4 10 Bxd4 Be6 11 Nd5 variation, but my own feeling is that this shouldn't be as challenging. Indeed keep an eye out for Gawain's recommendation of 16...Qf7 whilst Kiril Georgiev's 16...Nd5 looks very reasonable too. As it happened though Hikaru suffered a bit with 16...e5?, unfortunately denting his excellent results with the Dragon.
Yugoslav Attack 9 0-0-0 d5 Old Main line [B76]
After 9 0-0-0 d5 10 exd5 Nxd5 11 Nxc6 bxc6 12 Bd4, what with 12...Bxd4 and 12...Nxc3 being so popular, the old main line of 12...e5 13 Bc5 Be6 14 Ne4 hardly seems to get a look in these days:
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It did though this month in Jackson - Sipila, where after 14...Rb8, White chose 15 h4 over 15 Bc4 or 15 c4. The h-pawn advance isn't thought of as critical, although the selected 15...a5 is an unusual way to meet it. Theoretically this game shouldn't be of that much importance to us, but this encounter reminds us that this line still exists.
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Soltis Variation [B78]
The game Wan Yunguo-Dastan is another of those fiendishly complicated Soltis variation games:
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In this one White sacrifices a piece with 16 gxh5 a4 17 Bxf6 Bxf6 18 Bd5 e6 19 hxg6 exd5 20 h5 but actually we have seen it all before. White gets plenty of action for the material sacrificed but Black shouldn't really lose and only does so because of a couple of inaccuracies later on. It's mind boggling stuff but should you work your way through the notes, do keep your eyes peeled for 23...Qa5!.
Okay, hope you are all well. Back real soon! Chris and Gawain
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To get in touch with me subscribers can email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com.