Success with the Yugoslav Attack

Another outing for the Yugoslav Attack against the Dragon, but this time with success! (See here for a recent loss against a strong opponent where I made a bad mistake midway through.) I was helped, however, by a blunder (albeit an understandable one).

I really like this variation of the Sicilian - it's sharp and exciting. There is also a clear and almost singular goal for both sides - pursue the castled king! Despite the tactical complexities which occur I find it helpful to have this clear objective - my game isn't strong enough in other ways (e.g. positionally) to play well in more subtle lines.

The second game of Bobby Fischer's 'My 60 Memorable Games' sees him use the Yugoslav against Bent Larsen's use of the Dragon, with the chapter called 'Slaying the Dragon'. Fischer says of the variation: "White's attack almost plays itself ... weak players even beat Grandmasters with it. [...] I had it down to a science: pry open the h-file, sac, sac ... mate!" Fischer was 15 when he beat Larsen in that game. Well, I can't say I found it as easy as that....but nonetheless, I managed to open the h-file, and follow through with an attack which led to the forced capture of the black queen (although not mate...). Here it is. I will reproduce Fischer's game below, too.

Here is a 15 year old Bobby Fischer beating Larsen. Fischer doesn't need to take advantage of any blunders. The exclamation marks etc. are Fischer's.