Download PGN of September '10 Dragon Sicilian games

Yes Haslinger - Zelbel I believe demonstrates how Black can counter the aggressive 11 g4!? lunge in this aggressive castles queenside system very reasonably with 11...Qa5!?:

rather than accepting the pawn offering and defending.

In contrast Black does seem to get the worst of it employing a swift ...Ng4 in Hovhannisyan - Pavlidis, but it still doesn't feel like the end of the world!

Moving on to the Yugoslav Attack and we see a much desired novelty (well for this site and rare in general) in the ...Qa5 9 Bc4 line in the form of 13...Rab8:

A word of warning though, regarding Lagarde - Bailet, I wouldn't get your hopes up!

Thanks go to Bogdan Lalic and Feletar Darko for their annotations and submission of Palecek - Lalic. It's in the good old ultra popular Kb1 Re8 9 Bc4 variation:

Very instructive but well, I can't see 14 h3?! catching on.

You didn't think we could ignore an Anand - Carlsen encounter did you? Well we didn't but in truth this 10 Bb3 Nxd4 system doesn't really offer much new. It doesn't look as though White is getting any advantage in that area at the moment.

So then on to the 9 0-0-0 d5 Yugoslav and look out for the 22...Qd8! move (oops I hope I haven't spoilt the suspense) in this 12...Nxc3 pawn sac system:

If Wang Hao-Timofeev is anything to go by then Black still seems to be holding his own in this line too.

Hope you are all well.

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!)