Download PGN of December '08 Dragon Sicilian games

Yes everyone, I have come up with what I think is a good idea for White against either (sort of) Dearing's 13...Re8 and (sort of) Carlsen's 13...a6 in the form of 14 Nd5!?. We're talking refined prophylaxis and the idea stems from my long standing (though never previously mentioned on this site) interest in the sideline 13 Nd5 against the standard Soltis variation:

Actually to explain my thinking... Holland - Hodgson in that Soltis line is where I kick things off, hopefully explaining that 13 Nd5 is not much of a threat to Black provided he is in the know.

However... Klovans - Mikrut is a different story altogether. This, amazingly, is the only example of the same idea but with Kb1 and ...Re8 thrown in. Arrived at, not surprisingly, via a different move order I believe that what is essentially 14 Nd5!? is quite dangerous:

and replace ...Re8 with ...a6 and it may be even more so. Watch this space!

Okay, moving on but not away from the forum's favourite variation we have Radjabov - Kasimdzhanov which saw Radjabov's home preparation ultimately succeed. Yes he deliberately deviated from this site's recently annotated Dominguez Perez-Kasimdzhanov, but it would appear that with accurate play Black should still be okay. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of that though.

How could I resist including Cernousek - Plat, which is a novel way of trying to re-energise the ...Qa5 line of the 9 Bc4 Yugoslav Attack with 12...Rfd8!?:

Certainly a rather amusing approach but I'm not sure that it will take off.

Inarkiev - Radjabov is a 9 0-0-0 d5 10 Qe1 Yugoslav Attack where Black will be kicking himself for not winning what was otherwise a very dynamic and instructive encounter.

Konguvel - Neelotpal is a Dragadorf featuring the latest idea of a quick ...Nbd7-c5 keeping the light-squared bishop's options open:

Oh by the way, happy new year everyone! I'll be back real soon with the January update.

Bye for now, 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!)