This is the starting position for the Sicilian Dragon. Black will move his Dark Squared Bishop to g7 to attack the e5-d4-c3-b2-a1 squares. To accomplish this, however, Black had to weaken his dark squares h6 and f6 by moving his pawn to g6. Black's King must castle king side, and must be wary of these weaknesses.
White will attack these weaknesses, most commonly by pushing his h-pawn, h4, h5, and hxg6. This opens up the h-file, which allows White's h1 Rook to join the attack without even moving. White's pieces will have a rather easy time developing as well, which further increases the pressure on Black's position. White often castles Queen side to facilitate his King side attack.
This is where Black gets his counter play, by attacking White on the Queen side. Black will aim to get a Rook on c8, and break through somehow with this rook. Other plans are possible, including moving the Queen to the a5 square, or moving the a- and b-pawns aggressively against White's position.
In short, White and Black race to attack each other and come away with a win. It makes for exciting, but nerve wracking, chess.
That is the main story-line of the Dragon, but there are many other important things to know about this opening. End game play can be very important, as the racing attack may not lead to checkmate, but rather to a advantageous end game. Both sides should look for the other to over press, and try and simplify off enough material to get to these end games.
Positional play, and the quiet development of pieces can be very important. The best attacks usually require the best piece placement, and this cannot be done with sheer aggression.
Aside from these general ideas, to my mind, three positions should be looked at in the Dragon. Many other possibilities exist, but these three positions seem the most important.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Bc4 Bg7 7. 0-0
The first position is what is known as the Classical Dragon. A lot of variations exist based around similar ideas. 6. Be2 is possible, and moves like f3, f4, Be3, Bg5 can be played before White castles King side. Black has a great deal of possible moves and plans from this position. Truth be told, I dont have any preferred plans in this position, and usually just wing it. In future blog posts, we can explore this position in more detail.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 Bg7 8. Qd2 0-0 9. 0-0-0
9. 0-0-0, I am not sure if this variation has any memorable name. It is a very good variation for White though, in my opinion. White leaves his light squared bishop undeveloped, and instead makes moves that he more or less knows he wants to make. Not a bad strategy, but it allows Black the move 9...d5, which leads to a very interesting pawn and Queen sacrifice. It is not entirely clear for even the top level players whether Black or White is better 9...d5 variation. I believe there is an excellent game by Ivanchuk, where he makes a strong case for White, but with the Dragon things change quickly and drastically. Black also has options like 9...Nxd4 or 9...Bd7. The variations that arise from this position are very complex.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 Bg7 8. Qd2 0-0 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. 0-0-0 Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5
This is known as the Yugoslav Variation. I believe it used to be the main variation of the Dragon, and it has been analyzed very deeply. White has a relatively straight forward plan of attack, to paraphrase Bobby Fischer, open up the h file, sac, sac, sac, and mate. Black has a lot of ways to mix it up, though. For what it is worth, my strategy in this position is to lose material as quickly as possible. I find that whoever sacrifices first in this position usually is the one who wins.
Well, thats a wrap for the Sicilian Dragon overview. Future blog posts will go through variations coming from these positions, as well as other positions. My next post will probably be a similar overview of the Chigorin.
I also want to lead anyone who stumbles onto my site to some of the better chess resources on the internet. First off, chessgames.com is probably the best general site on the internet. There are several chess tactical sites, but my favorite is chesstempo.com. It has a nice interface, and the problems are pretty decent.
Ok everybody, have a good one.
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