from dragon to goat

why has the sicilian dragon lost its popularity from a mighty opening used in the 1990 's  it, has just become a surprise weapons why are people leaving the dragon and playing openings like najdorf.which opening do you  prefer the dragon, accelerated dragon or some other variation in the sicilian .what are the weak points of dragon if any?

The Dragon was the first opening I started using as black.  I was winning at first and then my score went up.

As the players got stronger the Dragon became weaker and I began losing games.

I started using the French Defense and it seemed to work better.  It's a bit easier to play, I think.

Now I'm at the point where I'm looking for a new, more aggressive opening for black.

As for white, I play King's Gambit mainly.  It's about as aggressive as it get's and that's just how I like to play for now.  Doesn't seem to fail me much.  Although, I must say that I'm still learning.

while u switched from dragon to french i switched from french  to dragon

The Dragon is my favourite opening against e4. Any opening with opposite side castling, pawn storms and piece sacrifices is definitely more interesting and fun to play! Although risky, Bg7 can be really powerful. I would say that the biggest downside is that white often gets in the attack quicker.

Aggressive in what way?

If you are playing stronger players with Black you will need to equalise before you can attack, otherrwise you will get eaten alive.

However, If you like piece play and play the Kings Gambit, then you might want to consider the Latvian Gambit. Very risky but Hyper Aggressive.

I would have stayed with the Sicilian myself and changed variation say to the Najdorf or Kalashnikov that way you keep what theory you have learned in the Sicilian for use against anti sicilian openings.

Regards

Dave

what do u mean by  "aggressive in what way" the dragon is more sound than the latvian gambit

Regards 

Rahul

I definitely prefer the accelerated dragon because black can steer the game into a positional one.

Please people do not play the king's gambit. Black can equalize very quick. Honestly my record against the king's gambit is very good. I think I only lost to in like 4 times out of 20. Then again I'm not the best player either. I've recently switch to the latiavan gambit and its pretty good. Last night at my chess club I was scoring pretty well with it. I'm slowly learning that it won't be my main opening against e4 but as a surprise weapon. I normally play the alkehine defense which is always fun. I'm going to switch back over to the sicillan and learn that. I think people don't play the dragon as much because white has the abiltity to play  h4 h5 quickly and once the pawn covers are gone it's a rap for black.

Timeless

I like this line in the "Hyper-Accelerated" Dragon, although I've never put it to practice.  I can't believe I'm sharing it with you....  I wanted it to be a secret weapon for me when I finally use it but here goes.

This particular line should show up in databases so it's not so secret I'd think

I am not clear how you can discard the King's gambit while recommending the Latvian. After all, the Latvian is the King's gambit with tempo down. This tempo down also makes it much more risky. Personally I still respect the King's Gambit although I no longer play it often as white, while I am very doubtful about the Latvian. About the Dragon, I believe the black usually replies h4 with h5.

The weak points... well, you are allowing the white a probably lethal pawnstorm attack on the kingside in hope that your pieces attack on the queenside will prove quicker. This may or may not work, and a very good knowledge of the lines is required to play it at all efficiently.

I am asking if by aggresive you mean gambits, or rapid development open positions etc The Caro kann can be played aggresively if you wish.

The Latvian gambit is better than it looks and you can get slaughtered or win quickly. But you will learn an awful lot about piece play.

Regards

Dave

 But if you use the latvian gambit as a surprise weapon it can be deadly. If white doesn't play correctly he can lose quickly.

I do realize that, what I mean is this couldn't be due to the Latvian being objectively better than the King's gambit. But it may be that a Black player who replies 1.e4 with 1....e5 is prepared to meet the King's Gambit since they encounter it fairly frequently (in blitz at least), while a White player who opens with 1.e4 might not be as well prepared to meet the Latvian which they rarely face.

 your correct, but if i stated that the lativan gambit was better than the king's gambit then I didn't mean it. There both pretty equal in my book..... well the king's gambit might be a little more sound

yes but you're 300 pts lower than him.

Chesscrazee,

You'll do one of two things.  Switch back to French or switch to something else.

I think you'll find that the Dragon has mainline moves, but normally people play against it differently and most likely it'll turn into something else and you'll be stuck calculating your next move instead of going off learned and memorized book moves.  This leads to time problems and positioning problems early in the game.

This is basically what happened to me.  The Dragon, lots of times, will change...into a goat!

c'mon bro, whaddaya gotta bust my rooks for?

There are no 'weak points' in the Dragon. A caveman attack from white against a well prepared Dragon player is doomed to failure.

As for why the Dragon is becoming less popular - it's not.

Despite the fact that there are less games played with the Dragon, the theoretical side is still raging. Golubev and others are defending the Dragon from the black side against those (dastrab!) who keep trying to refute the Dragon and make me waste my money as I bought a Dragon book not so long ago.