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January 2000

February Sneak Preview

New Highlights

New Games

I'm impressed with the amount of mail I've been receiving recently although I must confess that I wasn't expecting to be answering questions on the history of the Dragon. Let me be honest I hated history at school. Mind you with coalmining the topic as far as I could make out pretty much every week, we never seemed to cover anything useful...


...Unlike this site of course(!) where one letter in particular seemed to hit the nail on the head with some currently critical variations. Be sure to read my January e-mail grab bag where some interesting subjects are raised.

February Sneak Preview

Next month amongst other things I will endeavour to cover the 12 Kb1 and 13 Bg5 Yugoslav Attack variation of the 9 Bc4, ...Qa5 line (wow I have to catch my breath after that!) and investigate whether in general White really has anything to gain in the attacking lines by not castling (or at least delaying it).

February Sneak Preview

New Highlights

New Games

New Highlights

As for what's on offer here, well I turn the clock back and supply an annotated Dragon game from 1911 (see CW98)as well as one from 1934 (see CW99), the first I could find with a genuine Dragon move order.

A novelty that made a big impact on Hyper-Accelerated Dragon theory re-appears and here in CW100 I re-iterate it's strength, whilst in the Accelerated Dragon department a high level Maroczy Bind encounter is scrutinised, see CW101.

There are 6 recent Yugoslav Attack games. 3 with the connecting theme of queen vs rook and bishop arise from the once trendy 9 0-0-0 d5 10 Kb1 variation. This might seem like a bit of overkill as it has gone a bit out of fashion, but I aim to please and I've had a lot of enquires about this line.

Regarding the 9 Bc4 Yugoslav Attack, now it would appear that White can kill 2 birds with one stone with a rapidly gaining in popularity, newish, line. The birds in question are ...Rc8 with ...h5 and ...Rc8 without ...h5 and the avoidance comes through White delaying h4 and opting for 12 Kb1 Nc4 13 Bxc4 Rxc4 14 g4 instead.










I suspect that there will be there will be great theoretical debate over this variation and I start the ball rolling by resurrecting encounters with 14...b5?! and 14...Qc7 and introduce a new one with 14...Qa5!?(or ?!-only time will tell).

Okay happy reading and see you all later in February.

Chris.

February Sneak Preview

New Highlights

New Games

New Games

Yugoslav 9 O-O-O

The Positional Queen Sac A solid formation enables Black to let his queen go (albeit for a rook and bishop!) and probably retain at least equality.

Rooks and Bishops; The most deadly attacking force! Well perhaps not, but in this topical queen sac line they are certainly a handful!

To and Fro! Black was winning, White was winning, Black was winning etc. Does the story sound familiar? Another fascinating rook and bishop vs queen scenario.

Yugoslav 9 Bc4

The New Approach A recent attempt at refuting the ...Rc8 Dragon lines has proved rather successful.

Accepting the weakness Black allows himself to be saddled with a permanent problem, but somehow manages to share the wares.

Interesting comparisons!? How are line assessments affected when a rook is on f8 rather than a8? Much could hinge on the conclusion.

Classical

Once upon a time... A gander at this early encounter demonstrates just how much the Dragon has progressed.

Accelerated Dragon

Is patience really a virtue? The key is knowing when to hang loose and when to get going. The Maroczy Bind is one variation where such knowlege is invaluable.

Hyper-Accelerated Dragon

Out of date! That's what a top Grandmaster's preparation of a critical Hyper-Accelerated Dragon line was here. And boy did his eager opponent take advantage of that fact.

Miscellaneous Lines

The First Time... that the 'pure' Dragon move order was played according to my database was 1934. This game shows that there was still a lot to be learnt about the value of the Dragon bishop.