Sicilian Defense - Dragon Variation

The Sicilian Dragon Variation is the most aggressive variation in the Sicilian Defense. Black fianchettos his bishop to g7 and looks to play a hypermodern style of play and control the center of the board. Typically white will castle on the queen side and black will castle on the king side. Because of this there will be fireworks and both sides will try to mate their opponent as quickly as possible.

check out more openings at http://www.thechesswebsite.com

software can be found at http://www.chesscentral.com or http://www.chessok.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sicilian
• defense
• dragon
• variation

[thechesswebsite]

@chumbucket843 Well this is one of Magnus Carlsen's favorite openings so I am going to disagree with you 100%. Black has tons of sharp lines that he can choose attacking the queen side of white. Not sure what you are basing your reasoning on.

[Cr055man]

@mateklQ theres a few reasons, one is whites knight is in a better position.

if black retakes with the B pawn and pushes it up it takes away those black squares that the bishop and queen are on.

Also it advances blacks pawns on the queen side, giving black a lead in the attack, as mentioned in the video both sides try to mate as quickly as possible on opposite sides, so its generally not a good idea.

It also shields blacks queen on B6 if it moves there which is a really big threat to white.

[dopilus]

@perryliu08 aside from the fact 'this is a lecture for black ... why would white want to trade off so soon before a sound development?

[vancruel27]

hi..can u make a video on sicilian defense scheveningen variation

[MrOkmania]

I'm amazed by the quality and professionality of your chess tutorials. Thank you very much!

Best regards from Germany

[perryliu08]

11:14 why can't white's dark square bishop go to h6 and trade off the dark square bishop immediately?

[B78ChineseDragon]

Totally agree with @chumbucket843 the Dragon is alive and kicking, and the Chinese Dragon is an exciting weapon at Black's disposal, see more in the Chinese Dragon book, on the website sicilianchinesedragon

[rwsmith29456]

Thanks for that. I've faced the Levenfish and it isn't fun. Gotta learn a lot more about it.

[SuperJohnsonrod]

I've found that white sometimes puts his bishop on G5, attacking the knight. There's no immediate threat but it can come into play when he trades it off for the f6 knight, undermining center control. Aside from that, it's just a thorn in the side and there's no way to dislodge it without messing up the fianchetto pawn structure. Any thoughts?

[Seven111]

And after Qd2, I don't understand why white wouldn't want to play Bh6 as this would force a trade of black's good bishop.

[Seven111]

@ 9:00 Why doesn't black just play Nc6 to stop check?

[1Deejay7]

STFU ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh­h breakdown overload chess mind multitasking toaster