!!! Master the Dragon !!!

The crowd is roaring with the cheer of your victory!

You have certainly gained the attention of the people - they praise your prowess and might! Surely your wisdom is unparalleled throughout the world, for you have tamed the dragon and now wield its power as your own.

As you stand there, drinking in your most certainly well-deserved glory, you notice that there is one voice not joining in the harmony of praise.

The lone voice from amongst the crowd calls out to you and asks, "But what about d5?"

You wince and your heart threatens to stop its everlasting beat.

What about d5?

All your knowledge and skill unto this matter has suddenly vanished and you are about to give up all hope, but then you remember...

The Dragon Master, that is me - just by the way, is here to guide you in your quest and show you how to harness greatness and grasp it firmly in your hand!

So, my young pilgrim, let us look at what d5 is all about.

The move d5 is suggested as a way to avoid the uncorking of the supremely cool and very awesome and most assuredly unassailable Hyperaccelerated Dragon Fianchetto Pterodactyl and - in truth - it does do this one way or another.

But, shelf your sadness for the moment as we observe the Dragon in it's finest form:

Notice that the real finess and, truly, the ultimate satisfaction come from the Queen recapture maneuver that we perform in our Dragon setup after the mind-game of c5.

As the Dragon Sage, allow me to show you a set up that you can play in this manner that has similar maneuvers.

Unshackle your mind, for a moment, and consider our move order. As per my initial instruction, I showed you the wonders of mind-games and delay tactics, urging your opponent to play d4 so that we can play our c5 move and tempt them into the capture that allows our little Queen slitherings.

You can, however, play a different move order that not only prevents the d5 countermove, but also sets a potential trap for your opponent that lures them into allowing your dragon to pounce in a much more drastic fashion than I shewed you previously.

This move order once again presumes your opoonent to be a principled member and assumes the move 1.e4 by white. Here, in response, we immediately play the move 1.c5 in response. This opens up an invitation for white to play an aggressive move of their own with 2.d4 - sacrificing the pawn in order to gain developmental advantage!

If you play a waiting move here such as g6 then, whilst you do open up the potential of their recapture on c5 to enable your Queen maneuver, you open yourself back up to the d5 move that we are trying to avoid. 

It is therefore that we immediately capture back on d4, accepting their pawn sacrifice and allowing them to decide whether they want to commit to the Smith-Morra Gambit that they have hinted at here or if they want to play knight f3 to move into more normal lines and an Open Sicilian after they play knight takes on d4.

This, however, is where we can set a juicy trap for our opponents. Since our opponents are certainly not as smart as us - for we have the secret dragon knowldedge - we therefore set a nice looking trap for the knight that once again enables our Queen maneuver.

Observe:

This move e5 prevents their taking back on d4 and appears to be a free pawn for them. That juicy looking juicer is just waiting for that horse to sink its teeth into the dastardly trap that we have set on e5.

Like so:

In one swift motion we have tricked our opponents into giving their knight to us as a tribute to our phenomenal power.

Huzzah!

In this particular example the opponent plays the best move of pawn to c3 to block the check from our Queen, but there is another - utterly deranged - line which can occur if they decide to block with the knight by playing knight c3 instead.

Blocking with the knight is, of course, a mistake by white - for they are giving away BOTH of their knights as tribute to the Dragon. In so doing, however, they are also removing your right to castle.

Let me show you how:

Certainly, you have the advantage in this position... But it is quite a dissatisfying position to the eye and losing the right to castle is simply no fun (Imagine not being able to swing the king into the corner of the board for the lolz).

It really does look bad...

You may also ask, 'What if we still capture the knight on e5 with the queen anyway?' and this question is certainly valid. Whilst this way of moving prevents you losing the right to castle, if invites some of the most dangerous possibilities.

Let me demonstrate by showing you what the fish has whispered into my ear:

You shall never face such a game, but it is possible to play in this order. Either way - whether you take with the pawn or Queen, the chances that your opponent will block with the knight are somewhat small.

You will most likely face the pawn block - letting you take back with the Queen on e5 and then play the game from here like this:

This is assuming best moves, of course, which you are unlikely to face since your opponent will most certainly be a sausage - but the concept is clear, evade any attacks on your queen, improve your position and castle. 

Ensure that you crush your opponent's mistakes whenever they make them by keeping in mind the threefold dragon principle: Analyse, Arrest, Assault !

1 - Analyse the board for any possible checks that you can deal to your opponent and see if those checks are useful and result in a better situation for you or give you some kind of advantage.

2 - Arrest your opponents pieces by noting whether or not they can be captured and, if they can, seeing if the capture is good for you and improves your position or gives you chances.

3 - Assault your opponent! If no advantageous checks or captures are on the board then you must set up an assault on your opponent somehow - usually through a string of moves that you have planned out to threaten either checks or captures or improving moves.

Remember the 3A!!!  !!! Analyse, Arrest, Assault !!!

If your opponent does not fall for your trap then you may once again shed a tear for you have been thwarted from allowing your dragon its meal.

Pesky dragon-hunters!

The normal continuation, after your trap on e5 is ignored, is the move c3 by your opponent to attack the d4 pawn. You must play knight c6 and, after their pawn captures back on d4, playbishop b4+ and trade bishops with your opponent when they block with the bishop. They will capture back with the queen and you finish by developing your knight which they will also likely do from here if they have made it this far.

This is how it looks:

Obviosuly, continue to look for the 3A whilst playing all this so that if your opponent does not play these things you can captialize and gain some advantage.

All in all, this is the way to play the move order that prevents the d5 problem and allows the setting up of a nice little trap for unweary opponents who are unfamiliar with the wily ways of the dragon.

As an aside - the method of playing against d4 when played during the regular dragon game is simply to clog up the game as far as possible and try and get your opponent to make a mistake or sub-optimal move in the process (They are a potato, after all!).

Immediately after your opponent playing d4 - play d6 to stop the advancement and prevent the move e5 from your opponent - allowing you to develop your knight to f6 without fear of attack.

Do so like this:

Even when blocking up the position, you know the drill (you are a wise and learned master, after all) - you are still looking fianchetto and castle and your opponent; who definately plays principled chess and doesn't try to do silly things; will likely look to develop and castle as well. 

Now go, my disciple!

Go and conquer the world!

(Also, join my super cool Dragon club >here<)