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First up I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish all ChessPublishing.com subscribers a MERRY XMAS.

I know that I don't visit the forum too often but when I do I am flattered to read the nice things that are said about me. Of course there is the odd sarcastic remark about the punctuality of my updates but they are very justified. I do just want to say something about that though. I can't deny that my updates hardly arrive at the end of every 30 days just as one might expect from a monthly subscription. However I would have thought that the important thing is that there are 12 updates for a year's subscription and each update is reasonably up to date regards games played around the World.

Not that I would wish to criticise any of my fellow site hosts but I have observed the odd occasion where a lot of old games appear. Of course often there are very relevant games of the past and it can be interesting to see them with new annotations. However, whilst I could treat ChessPublishing as a book and do the next 12 months in advance, I suspect that the subscriber wouldn't be too happy with that even if all the 'updates' appear 'on time'!

The truth is that I enjoy hosting this site especially as it forces me to study my favourite opening. You guys are constantly sending in new ideas and you have seen how I am not afraid to employ them myself if I think that they are up to the job. I am planning on playing more chess in this coming year and hopefully that means that I will be able to bring you some more Dragon encounters of my own!?

That's just my view though. All paying customers should tender their opinions/complaints to Tony but please don't be too hard on him as aside from sacking everyone (something I suspect that he's on the verge of doing!?) he has tried so hard to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Moving on to this month's update and noticing that I hadn't done any reviews for a long time, I had no qualms about a request to take a look at the fairly recent 'Experts Vs the Sicilian'. Boogie over to the Reviews section then to read my pearls of wisdom on this book that boasts Mikhail Golubev and Peter Heine Nielsen amongst its contributors.

Download PGN of December '04 Dragon Sicilian games


In preparing for the Gibraltar tournament I am planning a bumper January update but I did want to get this to you in time for your Xmas dinner. There are five fully annotated and very topical games:

Shirov - Williams: The French Defence is binned in favour of this trendy Najdorf/Dragon hybrid:











Solodovnichenko - Tay: Another subscriber submission, the theory on this interesting pawn sac:











is fast developing.

Aldrich - Shemyakin: Yep more ...b5 pawn offerings:











, here with the first ever Dragon chesspublishing.com and Chess Today liaison.

Pel - Pribyl: Following on from last month's Gwaze-Ward encounter we have more mixing and matching against the 'quiet' g3 system. I may have to revise this roadmap soon as there is a clear overlap with the 9 0-0-0 Bd7 and 9 g4 Bd7 Yugoslavs.

Krivoshey - Andersson: And so we end 2004 with a Classic Accelerated Dragon by one of the opening's heroes.











Enjoy and be sure to join me in 2005.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Best wishes

Chris

To get in touch with me, either leave a message for me on the Dragons Forum, or email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com (for subscribers only!)