6...h5 in the Dragon

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Avatar of ScienceSquares

What does everybody think of 6…h5 in the Dragon (Following the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6)? I know it looks suspicious, since Black usually doesn't go out of his way to introduce potential weaknesses, but then again, in the Soltis variation h5 is eventually played in an effort to slow down White's kingside play.

After all, Black would like to play 6…Ng4 to eliminate White's dark squared Bishop, since then his own dragon bishop would reign supreme from g7. However, after 6…Ng4 White has 7.Bb5+ when Black will be forced to drop some material. 7.Bb5+ Nc6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.Bxc6+ Bd7 10.Bxa8 Qxa8 is bad for Black, although I always thought that it would be fun to try in Blitz.

The moves 6…Bg7 and 6…a6 both enable the Ng4 move, and usually White plays f3 to prevent the Knight jump and preserve his Bishop.

I think it would be interesting to try some different 6th moves for Black. I don't have a database of chess games but I can only find a few games of the try of 6…Bd7, and none of 6…h5.

I haven't done much analysis on the line, but a quick glance shows that 7…Ng4 is threatened, and if Black delays castling then the Be3-Qd2-Bh6 plan to trade off the Bishops is impossible. Also if castling is delayed, then any attempts to open the h-file might even benefit Black, while Black will be more vulnerable to central advances.

Below I've included a diagram; I'd like to point out again that none of this analysis was computer-checked, and I did not spend much time on it. It's only to demonstrate the theme.

 

Avatar of ScienceSquares

If you play any games using this line, please post them here. It will be interesting to see how White players react to this move!

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More Analysis of 6...Ng4

It is probably not even playable in Blitz, as White's moves are quite easy to find and Black lacks good methods of counterplay.

Avatar of pfren

Looks ridiculous to me.

Suppose that white plays h2-h3, Bc4, and castles short, following the typical Dragon strategy of planting a knight on d5 (possibly after Rf1-e1 or something).

The only contribution of ...h5 in that fairly standard position is weakening Black's kingside for no good reason.

The Soltis is a very different beast: White has castled long and already committed himself to h2-h4.

Even at a classical approach with Be2, 0-0 and f2-f4, the positional threat of f4-f5 gains a lot of strength due to Black's sixth highly committal move.