Dragon on Opposite Sides

Playing White is Boris Verlinsky (1888-1950). He lived in Ukraine and Russia where he won the championships of Odessa (1912), Ukraine (1926), Moscow (1928), and the Soviet Union (1929). For the last, he became the first Soviet Grandmaster. His title was abolished two years later and Botvinnik became the new "first" Soviet GM in 1935. (See George Orwell's 1984 for "doublethink" and "memory hole.")

Nikolay Nikolaevich Riumin (1908-1942), with varied spelling, is shown using the Dragon Variation with the black pieces. He was champion of Moscow three times. He came as high as second in the Soviet Championship.

The Rauzer Variation was being developed in the thirties, when this game took place. In that now popular line, White usually plays 6.Be3, 7.Qd2, and 8.f3. This game is different. Verlinsky play f3 on move ten and plays Be2 instead of Bc4 or holding the bishop on f1. Riumin himself liked to play 5.f3, before Black plays 5...g6. White then had the chance to play c4, because of not playing 5.Nc3, setting up the Maroczy Bind. If Black does not choose the Dragon, White has the currently fashionable English Attack. 5.f3 has been called the Riumin Variation or the Prins Variation. Fine and Keres also used that move.