SICILIAN DRAGON – YUGOSLAV ATTACK
(Get out your chessboard (or two) and get ready to move the pieces! Play through the lines and see if the Yugoslav Attack fits your style of play. Better yet, find a friend and play some skittles, first taking the white pieces and then taking the black pieces. Start from 7. f3 or go straight to 10. 0-0-0—or anywhere in between! You can have some fun with this opening! ~Editor)
The Sicilian Dragon begins 1. e4
c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 which is a popular variation for Black. Last time we covered 6. Be2
(Classical), 6. g3 (Fianchetto) and 6. f4 (Levenfish) for White, while the sharpest line is the Yugoslav Attack starting with 6. Be3. The queen bishop is nicely centralized at e3, attacking both wings plus defend- ing the Nd4. After the almost automatic re-
sponse 6.… Bg7, White plays 7. f3 to protect the pawn on e4 and pre- vent any later … Ng4. When Black commits to kingside castling with 7. … 0-0, White responds 8. Qd2 preparing to castle queenside, giv- ing White better attacking chances against Black’s king starting with a pawn storm by the g- and h-pawns. The main line continues 8. … Nc6 9. Bc4 (inhibiting … d5) 9.… Bd7 10. 0-0-0 entering the middlegame. There are two stock traps right
out of the opening: 1) 6. … Ng4? 7. Bb5+ is a fa-
mous line winning material (7.… Nc6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Bxc6+; 7 … Bd7?/Nd7? 8. Qxg4), but after 6. … Bg7 the trap is off since Black’s king has an escape square at f8, thus 7. f3 by White prevents any … Ng4 ideas from Black. 2) After 10. 0-0-0 Rc8, White
must retreat or defend the Bc4, typ- ically by 11. Bb3. Instead 11. Kb1??/g4??/h4?? Nxd4 (discov- ery) 12. Qxd4 Ng4! (discovery) 13. Qd3 Nxe3 14. Qxe3 Rxc4 wins a piece since the Qd3 is overloaded.
18 Chess Life for Kids!
8 7 6
5 4 3 2 1
r+qrk+ pp+lpplp +npnp+ ++++ +LNP++ +NLP+ PPPQ+PP
+KR++R ab c d e f g h
POSITION AFTER 10. 0-0-0 After 10. 0-0-0, the chess-
games.com database has 862 games at the time of this writing, with these statistics for Black’s move: 10.… Rc8 49%, 10.… Ne5 19%, 10.… Qa5 16%, 10.… Rb8 9%, and 10.… Qb8 5%.
A. 10.… Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 There is substantial overlap be- tween 10. … Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 and 10.… Ne5 11. Bb3 Rc8. This has long been considered the main line for Black, and now White may choose between 12. h4 (most pop- ular), 12. Kb1 (second) and 12. Bg5 trying for an advantage. 12. g4 can be met by 12.… Nc4 or 12.… b5!? with good play for Black, while 12. Bh6!? leads to 12.… Bxh6 13. Qxh6 Rxc3!? (the standard Ex- change sacrifice in the Sicilian Dragon) 14. bxc3 and Black has a promising attack against White’s king.
B. 10.… Qa5 Black often plays a combination of
October 2011 … Qa5 along with … Ne5, in
either order. The point of 10.… Qa5 is 11. … Rfc8 (instead of … Rac8) keeping both rooks on the queenside to attack White’s king, and also freeing up the f8-square for Black’s king if needed.
C. 10. … Ne5 without … Rc8 This section is primarily the Chinese Dragon with … Rb8 supporting the advance … b5 and anchoring a fu- ture Nc4, which is an increasingly popular strategy for Black.
D. Other Lines 10. … Na5 is the only offshoot
with any real independent signifi- cance, but White can make the Na5 look silly by simply retreating 11. Bd3.
10.… a6 becomes a combination
of the Dragon and the Najdorf (5.… a6), which is sometimes termed a Dragondorf. The traditional teach- ing is that Black must attack White’s queenside with pieces, as a pawn storm with … a6 and … b5 is too slow because White breaks through on Black’s kingside first. The Yugoslav Attack is very effec-
tive against the Sicilian Dragon. It leads to a sharp game with chances for both sides, and hopefully now you will try it out. Good luck!
REFERENCES 1.
chessgames.com 2. Fritz 7
by Joshua Posthuma & Tony Palmer
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