Download PGN of May '13 Dragon Sicilian games
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Hyper-Accelerated Dragon [B27]
The likes of 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.e5 Nc6 6.Qa4 Nd5 7.Qe4 Nc7 8.Nc3 Bg7 9.Bf4 Ne6 is a Hyper-Accelerated variant that is not unfamiliar to us on ChessPublishing:
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but in Mammadova - Khalifman White now decides against not preserving his dark-squared bishop. It was slightly surprising that Black didn't take it, but even more surprising that in a few more moves the Super GM actually blundered his queen! This game has to be seen to be believed but needless to say cream rises to the top!
Accelerated Dragon 7 Bc4 [B35]
Just like last month we continue with an Accelerated Dragon of the non-Maroczy Bind variety, but Andersson - Skaanning is slightly offbeat. Yes, take a look below where instead of transposing to the main line through 9...d6 10 h3 etc, Black takes his one opportunity to get in ...Ng4 on move 9:
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This doesn't lose material due to the hanging white knight on d4, but this line hasn't scored too well for Black in the past. Certainly 10 Qxg4 Nxd4 11 Nd5! is promising for White although as you will see in the annotations, my view is that Black is essentially okay after White makes the decision to concede his dark-squared bishop.
Yugoslav Attack 9 0-0-0 Nxd4 [B76]
After 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 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Be6 11.Kb1 Qc7, I still believe that the best line for White is to go for it with a swift h-pawn assault but after 12.h4 Rfc8 13.h5 Qa5 (illustrated below), he should take on g6 before dealing with a possible threat to a2:
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Indeed 14.a3?! is well met by 14...Nxh5 but after 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.g4, Black must sacrifice on c3. Sadly he didn't in Peters - Stevens and instead 16...Nf6? gets ruthlessly punished by 17.Qh6+ Kg8 18.Nd5! Trust me, it's worse than it might look!
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Na5 [B77]
What, simply 9 Bc4 I hear you ask, but when you take a look at the diagram below you'll see why. Yes, after having investigated no fewer than 7 different Black moves here (obviously 9...Bd7 a lot more than the others!), we now get to our 8th in the form of 9...Na5:
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It is a move that I gave a bit of thought to in the past; the aim being to save on ...Bd7, particularly if you are not requiring a rook on c8 in the near future. Unfortunately its appearance in Idle - Anilkumar wasn't quite so deliberate! Nevertheless, this encounter between two top English youngsters turned out to be a kind of Chinese/Soltis hybrid and makes for intriguing viewing.
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Soltis Karpov variation 14...a6 [B78]
Plenty of transpositional issues arise in the game Mchedlishvili - Javakhadze. Typically the Karpov line in the Soltis would run: 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 h5 13.Bg5 Rc5 14 Kb1 and if that were the case then 14...a6 would leave us with the position that occurred below:
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The trendy ...a6 line that Magnus Carlsen pioneered was essentially after White tried to avoid the Soltis with 12 Kb1 and Black waited with 12...a6 (12...Re8 was the other prophylactic move that kept away from the committal 12...Nc4). Slightly oddly this game got there a different way still, and when it does, we see 14 Bg5 and then a first on the site 14...Rc5. Essentially, though, it's all typically crazy Soltis stuff and kicking off with 15 g4 we get plenty of action, unfortunately with Black missing that which mattered the most!
Yugoslav Attack 9 Bc4 Bd7 10 Bb3 [B78]
When you read that title you might assume that White has played 10 Bb3 in the standard 9 Bc4 Yugoslav Attack, possibly to avoid the Chinese Variation, and then Black has traded knights in the centre and played ...b5. Indeed that is how we have been known to see the position below arrived at, but in fact Butkiewicz - Kulhanek came about via a Hyper-Accelerated Dragon that transposed into an Accelerated Dragon before moving on again to the normal Dragon:
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I had noticed that though this sharp position has been well investigated previously, it has occurred a couple of times recently and so I thought that it was time for a review.
Bye for now everybody! Chris
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To get in touch with me subscribers can email me at Chris Ward@ChessPublishing.com.