Download PGN of July '10 Dragon Sicilian games

Nisipeanu - Carlsen being an entertaining 9 0-0-0 d5 Yugoslav Attack where Black meets 10 Kb1 with 10...Rb8!?:

a move that was featured on this site a long while back.

Bitoon - So is also with ...Rb8 only this time in a more standard Chinese variation in which we see some nice combinational play.

Well I would have said 'Staying with the 9 Bc4 Yugoslav Attack' only Savchenko - Gochelashvili starts that way but then turns out more like a 9 0-0-0 variation as White opts to drop the bishop back to e2 rather than b3:

On the other hand Nikolova - Gaponenko is genuine 9 Bc4 with a trip back to the old days in the ...Qa5 line. The big question is whether 14...b4 is really keeping Black (so to speak) on the board?

Well it's not often that we get a new move for this site as early as move 9 in the standard Classical but that's exactly what happens in Naroditsky - Cabrera Trujillo. The surprising thing is that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with 9...Ne5:

and in practical play it scores 50% based on more games than you might imagine.

Well it was about time we featured another Maroczy Bind and Felgaer - Stokke is just such an Accelerated Dragon. A lesson to be learned here for Black advocates of this line as White's play is simple and very effective.

Okay, that's it. Best wishes

Chris and Gawain

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!)