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ANNOTATED GAME
Just another Dragon
metalhead (1788) vs. moppa (1774)
Annotated by: moppa (1200)
Chess opening: Sicilian (B78), dragon, Yugoslav attack, 10.O-O-O
metalhead (1788) vs. moppa (1774)
Annotated by: moppa (1200)
Chess opening: Sicilian (B78), dragon, Yugoslav attack, 10.O-O-O
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1. e4 |
I've seen a couple annotated Dragons lately. Here's one I played recently. I think this game is quite interesting in terms of positional compensation and piece activity against material. | |||||
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1... c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 |
A little thoughts about the Dragon; Some people seem to think that it's not sound against best play unlike some other openings, but I think it's perfectly playable at all levels of chess. I agree that White's plan is easier to adopt than blacks, but it makes no difference of the objective assesment of the opening. I do think that the opening is rather one-sided, and I'm going to take some other openings against 1.e4 on my repertoire aswell. I've had bad score against the Scheveningen, so maybe I should experiment that line. | |||||
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6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 |
Yugoslav Attack. The most aggressive and probably the most critical test of black resources. White strenghtens his center, preparing to castle long, advance his h-pawn and checkmate down the h-file. Some games are this simple, actually. | |||||
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7... O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 |
I like to think that this knight's job is to force White make some sort of concessions at the queenside. Whether it is to give up the useful light-squared bishop (and so weaken the light squares) or to distrup the pawn formation or something else, something for black to attack. | |||||
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9. Bc4 |
The most agressive variation. The pin on the f7-pawn might turn useful if white plays h4-h5xg6, because black would like to answer fxg6 keeping the h-file closed and to clear escape route for the king. It also defends the queenside lightsquares and prevents the move d5. However, the minus side of this bishop move is linked with loss of time. It is forced to move to b3 and many times equally forced to trade itself to a knight landing on c4. Thus some players prefer 9.0-0-0 d5 but it it mostly matter of taste. | |||||
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9... Bd7 |
Making room for rook to come to f8. The bishop is not very happy on this square, but there is no better square right now. | |||||
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10. O-O-O Rc8 |
Ideally black would like the other rook to come to f8, but there is no fully acceptable square for the queen right now. There is a notoriously sharp variation 10...Qa5 but the modern theory seems to dislike this move. | |||||
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11. Bb3 |
A common theme - there is no immediate threat against the bishop, but he will have to retreat it sooner or later so white mantains maximum flexibility with the text. | |||||
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11... Ne5 |
On a way to c4 to weaken the queenside - altough in some variations the knight stays at e5, controlling important central squares. That is not so common though. | |||||
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12. h4 |
White starts the thematic h-pawn hack | |||||
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12... h5 |
A big decision for black. I played this move at the first time in this game, mostly because I've had more problems breaking this formation as white than those where black allows the move h5. It's a little suspicious to play at the side of board where your opponent is stronger though... I remember that I once read John Nunn writing something like that there are two ways to play the Dragon (or was it about all positions with opposite-side castling...) , the safe and the attacking way. The other is to use minimum amount of preventive moves on the side you are defending and use every possible tempo to attack on the other side - and this is the safe way! The other way is to completely ingore the opposite attack and trust that you are the one qho checkmates faster. It seems that black is now playing the "safe" way. | |||||
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13. Bg5 |
Aggressive, once again. Now white is ready to remove the f6-knight and he is not forced to trade the LSB for black knight. | |||||
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13... Rc5 |
Black immediately exploits the square white has left without control. Sergei Karjakin once wrote on his blog something like: It's easy to win with the Dragon. Just move your rook to c5, sacrifice it to anything that comes to the fifth rank, pick up pawn(s) and win the endgame. Sometimes things may be that simple... | |||||
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14. g4 |
It looks like black is getting blown of the board! However, it is not so easy. Good bless the open c-file black obtained at move 4. White have to work for those! | |||||
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14... hxg4 |
I think this is the best move, altough black wouldn't like to play at the kingside. If the pawn is left at g4, it might somewhat cramp White's attack. | |||||
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15. f4 |
Preparing to blast trough the kingside. Note that White doesn't really win tempo because it merely forces black to make a move he wanted to do anyway. | |||||
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15... Nc4 16. Qe2 |
No reason to give up the LSB, not yet. | |||||
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16... Qc8 |
The knight must be defended, but there are other purposes too. Obviously black likes to increase firepower on the f-file, and at c8, unlike at the natural square c7, the queen lends support to the g4-pawn too. | |||||
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17. f5 |
Thematic. Now black sees no reason to react, so he tries to force White to waste some time on the queenside. | |||||
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17... Nxb2 |
This looks like a pseudo sacrifice, but it all boils down to a familiar Dragon exchange sacrifice. | |||||
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