Download PGN of March '11 Dragon Sicilian games
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6 g3 [B70]
No doubt the trend will inevitably switch back to the aggressive lines but nevertheless, reflecting the time of the quieter systems, we kick off this month's update with...
Heidenfeld - Jones; Some inaccurate play by White and some aggressive play by Black soon sees the pressure put on the first player in this fianchetto system. Gawain observes that allowing ...Nxd4 rather than retreating the knight to e2 isn't that troublesome:
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Still I'll always remember that it was Kasparov's choice against me in a simul when I was a junior. True it wasn't that troublesome then, either, as Gary was lucky to escape with a draw! (Just thought I'd get that in!)
6 Bc4 with Be3 [B72]
Van Weersel-Aguettaz; Well there were lots of standard Classical variation games played these last few weeks but this wasn't one of them! Here White kicks off with 6 Bc4 but then tries to get away with parking his other bishop on e3 and not covering the g4-square:
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Be sure to read the notes to this one and in particular the ...Bxd4 and ...e5 trick that often (including in this game) seems to be overlooked.
Hyper Accelerated Dragon [B27]
Next up something different as Wright - Ward offers the Black Hyper-Accelerated Dragon player another alternative to the Maroczy Bind. Yes effectively after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 d4:
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we can now add 4...d6 to 4...Qb6 in the non 4...cxd4 list!
Yugoslav Attack 9 0-0-0 a5 [B76]
Moving on to the Yugoslav Attack and Bagi - Szalanczy sees a second outing on this site for 9 0-0-0 a5:
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The last appearance was several years ago and although I still don't really believe it, this was definitely a better effort than last time with Mr Szalanczy winning with it twice recently.
Yugoslav Attack with delayed castling, 8...h5 [B75]
The game Dragun - Starostits is another similarly offbeat Yugoslav Attack where Black actually manages ...a5 and ...h5 but with the latter first. It would appear that there is quite a bit of mileage in these less common systems.
Yugoslav Attack Soltis variation [B78]
Finally we get more main line with Lu Yijie-Kanter. We're talking main line Soltis 13 Bh6 and the exchange sac on c3:
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Possibly an important theoretical game as Gawain effectively advocates condemning 16...a5 to the scrap heap!
Hope you are all well.
Best wishes, Chris and Gawain
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To get in touch with me subscribers can email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com.