Download PGN of February ’21 Dragon Sicilian games
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Accelerated Dragon, Maroczy Bind 6...d6 7.f3 Nxd4 8.Qxd4 Bg7 9.Be3 0-0 10.Qd2 Bd7 [B36]
The game Beradze, I - Gabuzyan, H was in our topical variation of 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 d6 7.f3 Nxd4 8.Qxd4 Bg7 9.Be3 0-0 10.Qd2 but then rather than the more typical moves 10...Be6 or 10...a5, Black mixed things up a bit through 10...Bd7 11.Be2 Bc6 12.0-0 a5 13.Rfc1 Nd7 14.b3 Nc5 15.Rab1 f5:
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Objectively perhaps this might be more worthy of a ‘?!’ than a ‘!?’ but whilst other alternatives are solid, this certainly gives White something to think about. Perhaps taking advantage of the fact that the white rooks have abandoned the kingside, still 16.exf5 gxf5 leaves exploitable weaknesses in the black camp. However 17.a3? certainly demonstrated a lack of patience and as it so often is, was well met by 17...a4! Upon 18.bxa4 Black could simply regain his pawn but it wasn’t going anywhere and 18...Kh8!? provoked White into another mistake in the form of 19.Bd4? Black had better but 19...Rg8 20.Rd1 Qf8 21.Nd5 Rxa4 22.Qc3 e5 23.Bxc5 dxc5 24.Kh1 e4 was with that juicy bishop pair and continued g-file pressure, suddenly looking pretty impressive.
Classical Dragon 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 Ng4 10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.f3 Bd7 [B72]
Two games for you this month in the still quite fashionable long castles Classical variation. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 Ng4 10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.f3 Bd7 12.Kb1 Ne5 the first offering of Kollars, D - Dunsbach, R sees White ambitiously delete the b2-b3 that would keep the black knight out of c4-square in favour of 13.Bh6?! However after 13...Nc4 Black could then meet 14 Qc1 with 14...Nxb2! Hence 14.Qg5 Qb6 15.Nb3 appeared when Black missed a relatively simple way to go on top:
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Yes 15...Bxc3! was just what the Doctor ordered whereas 15...Bxh6?! 16.Qxh6 Be6 17.Nd5 Bxd5 18.exd5 Rac8 19.Rhe1 and now 19...a5?! was a little too slow because of 20.Re4! preparing a deadly rook swinger. Black tried to generate some counterplay against c2 but 20...Qc7 21.Nd4! Qb6 22.b3 soon saw that easily snuffed out.
Classical Dragon 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 Ng4 10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.f3 Nxd4 12 Bxd4 Be6 [B72]
In Shevchenko, K - Vlassov, N this time after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 Ng4 10.Bxg4 Bxg4 11.f3 Black chose to trade knight himself so that after 11..Nxd4 12.Bxd4 he could ‘safely’ deploy 12...Be6:
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I say ‘safely’ but you will note that in the annotations I discuss whether Black really need fear 12 Nxe6 if he opted for 11...Be6 immediately.
In any instance this is what happened when after 13.h4 Bxd4 14.Qxd4 the next question is whether 14...Qb6 is more accurate than 14...Qa5. Maybe not disastrous but after 15.h5 White’s central control and better attacking chances leave him with an advantage which could have been swiftly magnified after 15...Qe5?! 16.hxg6 hxg6 17.Qd2 Rfc8 18 Rh4! However that last move didn’t feature with instead 18.Kb1 Rc5 19.f4 Qg7 20.g4!? Bxg4 all fun and games!
Dragadorf 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 h5 9.Bc4 Nbd7 10.0-0-0 b5 11.Bb3 Nc5 12.Kb1 Bb7 [B72]
Possibly the World and his dog has now seen the high-profile encounter Dominguez Perez, L - Carlsen, M but hopefully my annotation will go some way to explaining it. Anyway in quite a popular but still relatively offbeat system that has featured quite a bit on the site, regular subscribers will recall the position after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 h5 9.Bc4 Nbd7 10.0-0-0 b5 11.Bb3 Nc5 12.Kb1 Bb7 occurring not that long ago in the World Champion’s tussle with Grischuk. There we saw White deploy 13 a3 whilst I also speculated about 13 Nf5!? but here the strong Cuban GM opted for 13.Rhe1:
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Clearly White was looking for action in the centre with the black king there but following 13...Rc8 14.Bg5 0-0 was then safe. Though there are plenty of viable alternatives for both sides, very reasonable was 15 Nd5 e6 16.Nxf6+ Bxf6 17.h4 Bxg5 18.hxg5 Kg7 19.Qe3 although I have to say that most puzzling in this game was Carlsen’s reluctance to ever play ...e5 himself. Sill, fascinating was 19...Qc7 20.Rd2 b4 21.Red1 Rfd8 22.Qf4 Qe7 23.Ne2 a5 24.e5 d5 25.g4 hxg4 26.Qf6+ Qxf6 27.gxf6+ when the ambitious 27...Kh6? could have been beautifully refuted by 28 Rd4!!. To be fair that wasn’t easy to spot and instead after 28.Rh1+ Kg5 29.f4+ Kf5 30.Rf1 g5 31.Nd4+ Kg6 32.f5+ exf5 33.Nxf5 g3! 34.Rg2 Ne4! Magnus was on a roll and the writing was starting to appear on that wall!
Yugoslav Attack 9.0-0-0 d5 10.Qe1 e5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.exd5 Nxd5 13.Bc5 Re8 14.Bc4 Be6 15.Ne4 h6 16.Kb1 a5 17.g4 Qc7 18.h4 [B76]
The two players involved in the game Krysa, L - Paravyan, D are both very strong and therefore their game kicking off 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 d5 10.Qe1 e5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.exd5 Nxd5 and now 13.Bc5? Re8? (when all on the site know how good 13...Bh6+! is) 14.Bc4 Be6 15.Ne4 h6 16.Kb1 shows how anyone can fall foul of this line.
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Hence I spend quite a bit of time talking about move orders in the notes but all the same we have reached a fairly typical scenario as far as pawn structures and piece configurations are concerned. A standard plan for Black would be playing ...Qc7 and putting a rook on d8 but personally I find the idea behind 16...a5 quite appealing. Black grasps the b4-square but potentially looks to advance the pawn further leaving White unable to cover his b2-pawn so easily.
Indeed after 17.g4 Qc7 18.h4 we did see 18...a4 and a complicated and fascinating middlegame appeared through 19.a3 Nf4 20.Bxe6 Nxe6 21.Bd6 Qb6 22.g5 h5 23.Qb4 Qa6 24.Rd3 and now 24...c5! Setting the cat amongst the pigeons!
Yugoslav Attack 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1 Re8 13.h4 h5 14.g4 hxg4 15.h5 Nxh5 16.Bh6 Kh7 [B78]
And so on to the moment you’ve all (well some of you hopefully!) have all been waiting for. They may not be great conversationalists and their names are a bit of a mouthful but Stockfish 20210113 - LCZero 0.27.0d-Tilps-dje-magi involving two super computers promised to be bring some clarity in the critical line of 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1 Re8 13.h4 h5 14.g4 hxg4 15.h5 Nxh5 16.Bh6 Basically a Soltis but with Kb1 and ...Re8 inserted , of course previously we’ve looked into both 16...Bf6 and 16...e6 before but it has long been our quest to get to the bottom of 16...Kh7 17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.fxg4 Bxg4 19.Nf5+ Bxf5 20.exf5 and who can we trust if not a couple of 3800+ rated engines?
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Okay so we’ve seen quite a few encounters in this crunch line and the monsters of the chessboard were clearly happy that 20...Rh8 21.fxg6 Nxg6 only now having a difference of opinion. However whether it is 22 Qd5 or the played in the main game 22.Nd5, it appears that both roads lead to Rome. Yes it was only after 22... Nf6 23.Rxh8 Qxh8 24.Qg2 Qd8 25.Nf4 Qe8 26.Rg1 Qc6 27.Ne6+ Kg8 28.Qg3 d5 29.Nf4 Qd6 30.Qh3 Rd8 31.Qh6 Qb6 32.Rg5 Qf2 33.a3 Qe1+ 34.Ka2 Qe4 35.c3 Rd6 36.Nxg6 fxg6 37.Rxg6+ Kf7 38.Rg1 Ke8 39.Qh8+ Kd7 40.Qb8 Kc6 41.Qxa7 Kc7 that we could finally be happy that Black was in no real danger and basically then ‘Rome’ is a place where Black has to suffer a bit but if he plays a few accurate defensive moves, should be able to emerge with a share of the wares (or possibly more were the opponent to blunder!).
And that, ladies and Gentlemen, is your answer!
Best wishes, Chris
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To get in touch with me subscribers can email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com.