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Dragon or Najdorf?


  • 11 months ago · Quote · #41

    blake78613

    shenanigator wrote:

    I'm in love with the Bb7 Najdorf (granted, I'm not even rated 1500 in standard here, and I don't know much theory, so take this with a large grain of salt), mainly because it

    1) is FAR more flexible with your kingside pawns. Now and then pushing h6 can be useful; sometimes f5 when you haven't moved your castled rook yet can be fun, particularly if white has castled kingside; and if white sets up a non-standard attack, g6 or f6 can sometimes singlehandedly thwart it, whereas with the Dragon you set up a fairly static target for white to plan around.

    2) if you play your queenside knight to d7 rather than c6, white has to think seriously about your pressure on his central pawns with your monster bishop on B7.

    Only fundamental problem I've encountered thus far is the Marcozy Bind (c4), which really screws this position over, as it's best with pawns on a6 & b5, and you basically have to wait for white to open up the game at a time/location of his/her choosing :-(

    [This is probably only good advice if you play for fun, and while getting better is enticing, studying theory is not... at all... if this sounds like you, I vote you learn the basics of the Najdorf and King's Indian as black.]

    One of the ideas of the Najdorf is that Black waits for White to commit himself, before committing his (Black's)  queenside minor pieces.  Often ...B-b7 is correct, but you must be flexible and pay attention to what White is giving you.  Don't mechanically play ...B-b7.


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