Vs. 1.e4

Currently, I am learning the (hyper-) Accelerated Dragon for black, out of Chess Openings for Black, Explained.  (Great book, by the way).  I was wondering if there were any "off-beat" (or not) openings vs. 1.e4 that would be easy to fit into an Accelerated Dragon repertoire mindset.  If not, is there an opening vs. e4 that is easy to learn and does not require learning tons of other lines, if white doesn't play what you want?  (e.g. not the Latvian...would have to learn: what if white does 2.Nc3 instead, or 2.f4...etc.  Basically, I want a "1..." move for black to use occasionally for surprise...or dramatic effect.) 

Thank You

DJ

Hi dylanblok,

I'm not quite familiar enough with the accelerated dragon to offer much good advice on what defenses to 1. e4 would be similar to it. That said, I'm going to offer a bit of advise on this subject, which you can take or leave.

Based on your post, I'm guessing that you've just started playing the dragon, and you want it to be your main defense to 1. e4. My advice is, don't start shopping around for another defense to 1. e4 just yet. I would advice playing purely the dragon for a while until you get really familiar with it. The more people you play, the more positions you will see, and the more you will know about it. Maybe get a second book on it to see what other authors say about it. Look in online game databases to find games where masters play the accelerated dragon. Maybe you can find a modern master who plays the accelerated dragon regularly.  Pretty soon, you will start to be somewhat of an expert on the accelerated dragon, and you will be comfortable playing it against anyone.

Don't worry about being too predictable. This is amateur chess, not super GM level. Your opponents are probably not going to stay up late the night before they play you in order to find refutations to your favorite dragon lines. Besides, if a defense is half-way decent (which the accelerated dragon is), it will work even if your opponent is expecting it.  It doesn't do you any good to try and learn two defenses at once, so I would wait until I had really gotten comfortable with the dragon before I started to learn something else.

Also, don't lose too much sleep over opening theory. At our level, opening theory is not half as important as one might think. People depart from theory so quickly.

Sir, in a book entitled, "Tiger's Modern" there at least two chapters on what he calls the "Flexible Dragon". Best of Luck. MR.

Use the caro-kann...

 Thank you very much.  You're right, of course.  There's just always a part of me that wants to play something crazy.

DZumpino94 - the caro-kann is not a simple, easy to learn opening.  Learning one major opening is hard enough.  Thanks anyway.

DJ

The Pirc Defense has some Sicilian-like qualities.

I found 3 GMs who play(ed) the Accelerated Dragon frequently:

Vladimir Malakhov, Dragoljub Velimirovic, and Bent Larsen

DJ

I would advise against the Accelerated Dragon unless you look forward to being placed under the Maroczy Bind ( 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4! )

While modern theory says that the Maroczy is not as good as it was believed to be, it is a sure way for white to get a lasting, strategic advantage. If you're willing to play under a strategic yoke, waiting for either a tactical release or a draw, then play the accelerated dragon. However, the type of people who play the accelerated dragon tend to be the type who do not like those types of games.

Tiviakov used it as his main defence to 1.e4 for years and years until he switched to the 3...Qd6 Scandinavian.

There was that one time my father coached a family friend who always played 1...c5 to 1.e4, but was up against an opponent who she knew would be well prepared and select a variation she had a hard time getting anywhere in. In one afternoon, my father taught her the basic ideas associated with 1...Nc6, the Nimzowitsch Defense. After she did move 1...Nc6, her opponent spent 45 minutes staring at the board. The family friend won handily.

It's obscure, viable, and has the added benefit of ruling out any transposition to anything Sicilian right from the start, since the c-pawn is immediately blocked - the perfect surprise opening for Sicilian players, so to speak.

Why not the Najdorf?

Accelerated Dragon is very common since open sicilian is mostly played 

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6! (Accelerated Dragon)

I play the Pirc, which can be played against anything.  And it can transpose into a Sicilian sometimes, often with white's pieces a little oddly placed since he wasn't playing a Sicilian.

I have an excellent book on the subject, "Pirc Alert!: A Complete Defense Against 1. e4" by Lev Alburt and Alex Chernin.  I loved the Pirc so much I started playing it as white...until I realized I was basically playing the King's Indian Attack!

@MrBlunderful: What can't you play the Pirc against?  Depending on the situation, you have to know whether to push c4, e4, or c6, but I have yet to encounter an opening where the Pirc couldn't be played.

The Pirc is just fine against that.

there is a great chess mentor course on the complete sicilian if you want, it has just about every gambit and every try for white against the sicilian, anywhere up to the 2000 rating level the dragon will be fine, im just saying people are starting to refute it, i personally play the dragon and najdorf regularly,along with the caro kann

Put in other words: The Pirc, as recognized by most sources I can see on Opening questions, is defined by the move order 1.e4 d6. While it is possible to transpose into a variation associated with the Pirc from other move orders, not every opening that includes 1...d6 is a Pirc. By that definition, you can't "play the Pirc against anything", you can play it against 1.e4, or transpose into it with White's cooperation.

You can, I think, play 1...d6 with satisfactory results against any first move by White, but that move alone is not really offbeat or unique enough to warrant a singular name regardless of White's first move.

Ok, let me redefine what I said.  If you learn the Pirc as defined in the book I mentioned, it is flexible enough to play against anything.  Yes, it may transpose into KID or Sicilian.  In my opinion, that is the strength of the opening.

I play the (non hyper) accelerated dragon mostly, and I am dabbling with the Alekhine's defense. Its just so fun.

In his boo, The Siclian Defense, Jeremy Silman has a whole book on the Accelerated Dragon.