Dragon Sicilian — what it means in chess
A Sicilian with a kingside fianchetto and opposite-side attacks.
A Sicilian with a kingside fianchetto and opposite-side attacks.
[[board startfen="rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1" caption="The Dragon: the Sicilian with the bishop breathing fire down the long diagonal — and the home of chess's most famous mutual assault, where both sides castle opposite and race pawn storms to the kings." pgn="e4 c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 g6" notes="The most combative structure in the Sicilian universe, assembled ply by ply. The classical start. The Sicilian. White develops. Black shores up the center. The open Sicilian trade is offered — — and taken: the c-file is Black's now, the d-file White's. The knight recaptures into the center. Black develops with tempo on e4. White defends and eyes d5. And the Dragon move: ...g6. The bishop is coming to g7, where it will breathe down the h8-a1 diagonal at White's queenside — the same wing White is about to castle toward. The stage is set for the Yugoslav Attack: opposite castling, h-pawn against c-file, and the purest race in chess."]]
The Dragon is the Sicilian at maximum combustion: the kingside fianchetto plants the g7 bishop on the long dark diagonal — the "dragon" breathing down at the queenside where White's king is headed — and invites the most famous mutual assault in opening theory. White's principled answer, the Yugoslav Attack, castles long and throws the h-pawn at the fianchetto; Black masses on the half-open c-file with rooks and exchange sacrifices; and the resulting races, both sides attacking and neither defending, produced the sharpest mainstream theory of the pre-engine era and some of its greatest games. The structure of that race is already on this site's boards: the pawn-storm page's demonstration position is the Yugoslav against the Dragon.
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