Accelerated Sicilian Dragon

My venture with an Accelerted Sicilian Dragon, ending with a  successful bishop sacrifice...there is such a thing as a poison bishop.

Nice Q side attack, the 1st part was slightly unorthodox (7...a6) but it seemed to work ok.  I play the acc. dragon also, many white players try to play like this and castle Q side.  I'll take my chances with a K side castle almost always, the fianchetto formation can provide enough cover for your king so that you have time to attack the enemy king with your pieces.  Usually, something like your game is what happens.

Thanks for your comment...yes, I'm starting to like the Accelerted Dragon because if you play it well, you seem to be up a tempo throughout the game and your King seems to be relatively safe. 27.bc2 was an obvious blunder on my opponents part trying to over protect the e4 sqaure.

31...Bxe4! is a nice final touch - congratulations

I am a USCF Candidate Master and having been playing tournaments for 15 years...but can someone PLEASE explain to me why the Accelerated Dragon is so popular? I just have never understood the reasons for its popularity. It's not a BAD opening or anything like that, I just fail to understand why it's so popular, especially at the scholastic level.

I teach my students to respond with 1.e4 with 1...e5, and I am mostly against teaching Sicilians, but if I WAS going to teach a kid a Sicilian, it would be the "regular" Dragon (or, if they were over 1800, the Najdorf), I definitely wouldn't teach the Accelerated Dragon.

Another weird thing about this opening is that many white players will not move d4, making it a closed game of some sort.  When they play like this , with d3 instead of d4 and perhaps the KB on c4, you will probably play into something from the English opening for White.  I have contemplated just playing the Accelerated fianchetto version of the English for White, and this opening for Black, as there is quite a bit of overlap between the two, and that takes care of about 3/4 of your opening repertoire.  However, the English seems more tricky to handle unless you really love closed openings and massive pawn storms. You need a certain maturity level to play it well, as it takes a lot of patience.

The Accelerated Dragon is popular probably because it has the advantages of the regular dragon, but avoids the dreaded Yugoslav attack if played properly.  Also, and probably more to the point: it has been advocated in several books by such chess writers as Jeremy Silman , Lev Alpurt, and as far back as C.J. Purdy the Australian correspondence champ and chess writer of the 40s-70s.  I think they feel it's safer and a little less complicated than the regular dragon.  I suppose it is not theoretically up to grandmaster standards, probably not played much at your level. I think I read somewhere that Tim Taylor prepared it for playing in Yugoslavia and had to give it up because he was getting slaughtered by the masters there.

Well, I like playing the Sicilian Dragon but not usually the Accelerated version. Milestogo2 makes a good point about the maturity level and patience it takes to play closed Sicilians which are not always the flashiest games to play and lead to complicated positons that have to be grinded out. Maybe the name of the opening (Accelerated Dragon) is something that attracts and intrigues people? In this context, the openings we choose to play can be a relection of our personality?

 Thanks for your comment...funny thing is I was just reviewing a game Fischer played against Spassky (Game 5 World Championship) where he makes a similar decisive move with his bishop on a4...I'm no Bobby Fischer but I think it goes to show you that studying the games of strong chessplayers can influence your play...I'll include it here for your perusal...Fischer is playing a Nimzo Indian I believe?

 Can you imagine how Spassky must have felt when he saw this played on the board??? He must have known he was up against something very special in Fischer which probably explains why he just seemed to fall apart psychologically as the match progressed.

 LOL, I seriously doubt that but, then again, that's the beauty of chess...there's always someting more to learn. Playing a game that ends this way is very satisfying and makes up for your losses.

Very pretty finish. White has no choice but to take the bishop, it's mate either way. Great job of putting pressure on your opponent!

White made a big mistake, imo, with 14. Bxf6. If you give you your dark bishop and black still has his in this position, even if you bust through with the pawns you'll find mate to be extremely difficult. For that same reason (and not dropping a pawn), black should have played 14. ... Bxf6.

Unless I'm missing something, 27. Bxa4 and white cruises up two pawns, right?  I think this shows the problems with the AD. White wasted some moves and still would have had the quicker attack if he hadn't made a gross tactical error.

Against a player of identical skill to myself (1500s USCF), I'd rather face the Dragon, especially the Accelerated Dragon, more than any other opening. My two main goals against the Sicilian are to castle long and to weaken his king's pawn protection, and the Dragon variations hands me both of those and gives me a couple of tempos margin of error as well. In the hands of stronger players, it is of course a much more powerful weapon.

If played properly you can't really do the castle Q side and pawn storm bit safely with white against the Acc. Dragon.  That's why it's not the main line, which features k side castling and Bc4 for white. Black is  the one that saves a tempo by not moving d6 as in the regular dragon, in many lines playing d5 in one shot which disrupts the center .

"If played properly" is a mighty big caveat at the amateur level.

So YOU are responsible for all the young players playing the Acc. Dragon. I play it as well and I am old, I will have to try that Q a5 line, right now I play the  P-a5 line per chess openings for Black , explained.

its not like you get a chance to play the main line anyway, many people respond with B c4 and d3 as if it's a guioco piano.

Hello, André - I think this was sort-of answered above: the attraction is the added tempo by not playing ...d6

Against a Bc4, Nf3, d3  type of setup I play e6 and Ne2, intending d5 at the right time.  That works pretty well although if combined with the k side fianchetto for black there is a weak square on f6.  It doesn't seem to be a problem though-except for white that is.

White can usually just murder this opening with a maroczy right? I know that I never have wanted to play this opening as black, because I play the regular dragon, but this is how I would handle it:

white can't "murder" it with the maroczy, although it is a theoretical downside.  It isn't a walkover by any means, there are good antidotes available.  Lots of modern sicilian variations such as the Kan allow the Maroczy, and it isn't the terror it once was.  With patience black can survive