Sicilian Defense Dragon

Hello everyone, I just joined chess.com although I have been playing for a little over a week now at chess cube. But their forums are dead so I thought I would try another chess community for a while and not get locked into one right away.

This is a game I just lost on chesscube playing as black. (opponent rated 1541 me rated 1305).  In the game I was playing the Sicilian Defense dragon variation as I learned at thechesswebsite.com. I have been playing the sicilian in almost every game as black because almost everyone opens with e4 and I wanted to get a good grasp of one defense instead of jumping all over the place. I haven't gotten a chance to try the dragon as I learned in http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=esbm4nL5G-A this video because almost no one plays the mainline on chesscube. I actually felt really good because I felt like I was able to follow the opening really well but at some point things fell apart. Normally in an open game like this it is obvious what I did wrong but in this move apart from one blunder it is hard to tell for me. Maybe some better players here can give me some advice.  The critical mistake you will find is when I move pawn to d4 but I'm not even sure what the best move would have been there, or what I should have done differently before that.  Generally I know to take center control, castle, and reinforce my pieces. But I don't really know what to do if I get in a good position. (i.e. how to plan an attack) Thanks for reading my way too long post!

I would prefer 10...Nc6 to 10...e6 (11.Bxf7+ does not worry me at all).

Anyway, as played by white, Black should have a large advantage after the very natural 14...Rb8. Where is 14...Bb7 aiming at?

Hi, and welcome to chess.com :) For me dragon is best opening in chess and I love to play it, because it is really sharp and deadly. You have to practice a lot to be able to play it well, because both you and your opponent made huge mistakes. iF you need any help ask freely ;), you made a good choice for choosing dragon ;)

Thanks for the reply. Now that I reconsider 10 Nc6 I can see that the bishop to f7 would actually then  be pinned to the queen. My tactics as you can probably tell are fairly poor. My intention with Bb7 was to develop my bishop so that the a file rook could get out and also provide indirect support for a future push to d5 with my pawn.

Well I do not think 10...Nc6 is objectively better than `10...e6, but it does give Black a very easy game- all pieces come out unhindered, and if White takes on f7 (which is probably best) the pawn can be recovered anytime with an eventual ...Qb6.

7.. Ng4 is a well known trap/mistake here. White plays Bb5+ and on Bd7 Qxg4 wins the peice. So you have to play kf8 and ruin your castle.

Black is slightly better after 8...Kf8.

Come on man your an IM. That's just incorrect lol. How can black be better in a main line opening after 8 moves, when white has done nothing wrong? The only possible way to try take advantage of white's move order is  8.. Nc6 9. f3 Qb6, and that line is very risky. According to my database a +2400 guy hasn't played a serious game with 7..Ng4 for 30 years.

There is even a survey in Chessbase Magazine 54 about that variation.

A world champion (Mikhail Botvinnik) has played that as Black, and won pretty easily. Other GM's that have played the line are Kiril Georgiev and Genna Sosonko, of course with excellent results. The variation is not met frequently at high level simply because white does not allow ...Ng4.

And yes, white has done two wrong things: 1. let his e3 bishop being harrassed, 2. has misplaced his second bishop.

With 100% perfect play the position should be equal, but the fact is that it is much easier to play as Black.

Come on man, your a FM...

7. Nc6 guys, don`t talk about dragon when you dont know it please. 7 Ng4 is mistake Beacuse Bb5!, I can`t believe that IM would prefer black tehre, and I am just 14 years old teen. :S

Wrong....

@ Ivan1997: The line with 9.Bg5 which is the only one that makes sense positionally (9.0-0 Be5! is great for Black) is known since an old game between Ljubojevic and Sosonko, and Black is doing fine. After 9...h6 (9...Qb6? 10.Bxe7+ is a point) 10.Bh4 g5 11.Bg3 Qb6 12.Nde2 h5 the play is sharp, but Black is doing fine (engines say clear advantage for Black, which is probably a bit optimistic).

I won't blame you for not knowing that, since you are just 14...

And believe me, you have to study a dozen of years to learn what I know about the Dragon (it has been my exclusive opening choice till I became 25 or so). Being 14, half-literate and arrogant does not help at all.

Maybe to play with me? So i can teach you dragon? As far i was able to see your chess knowledge isn`t for an IM.

I will first teach you how to change your diapers, and then we can talk about chess. OK?

FYI Gufeld in his "Complete Dragon" book says that 8.Bb5+ is "harmless", and quotes the aforementioned Ljubojevic- Sosonko game (which ended in a draw, but Black had a certain advantage). You can follow the whole game (without analysis) in Game Explorer.

Because I am young it doesn`t mean I can`t destroy your poor game. Accept my challenge. Or you are afraid? Maybe you need to change diapers?

I'd rather wait for you to grow up first. Right now I have better things to do than accepting silly challenges from wannabe Dragon "experts".

They call it the dragon because posts about it drag on,....

Ah, OK.

The whole system is rare because simply Black has a good game after 7...Ng4.

7.h3 is also rare because the current trend in the h3/0-0 systems is white playing an early Re1 without committing the DSB yet. But of course it's a well respected move, just not popular using that particular move order.

So 7.f3 is by far the most frequent choice, going for the Yugoslav Attack chaos.

Well, probably because 7...Ng4 (as well as omitting f3/h3) is just a side note in most opening books, so they do not know it's good. Strong players do not allow it, and in the few instances a GM had the chance to go for it, he did.Engines do not find any flaw in Black's position (their evaluations fluctuate around zero, which means objectively equal, and practically it means nothing- it's quite apparent that Black has an easy game).

That's enough for me (and rather irrelevant, as I don't play the Dragon as Black since some twenty years ago).