Alexander Khalifman: Opening for white according to Anand Teil 11

This hefty book contains enormous quantity of information about one of the most popular Sicilians lately - the Dragon.

Preface

 Dear readers,

You are holding in your hands book 11 from the series "Opening for White According to Anand - 1.e4". We have analyzed in it different modifications of the Dragon variation i.e. systems in the Sicilian Defence in which Black fianchettoes his dark-squared bishop. In fact, the Dragon variation is not just an opening system, it is quite original chess philosophy. The point is that there has never been a single moment in which the theoreticians (as well as the majority of the practical players, though...) have considered it as 100% correct.

At first (Oh, yes, there were times like that...) the entire Sicilian Defence provoked a rather pessimistic attitude in general. Later this evaluation changed gradually, but during the 30ies of the past century the outstanding theoretician Vsevolod Rauzer suggested a plan of development for White connected with the set-up Be3, f3, Qd2, followed by castling long and a direct attack against Black's monarch. The evaluation of this system has not changed much since then...Is this system correct for Black? It might be, but it is terribly risky for him. Small wonder that since then the leading grandmasters in the world do not like playing the Dragon too often. Naturally, there have always been several non-conformists, prepared to face the danger; nevertheless the Dragon has never been popular at the highest level. On the other hand, it has always had numerous adherents among the chess fans and in correspondence games.

All this can be easily explained: Black's strategical concept is quite simple and it practically does not depend on the nuances in White's set-up. The bishop on g7 and the semi-open c-file provide Black with chances of active counterplay practically always. White can fight for a real advantage only by entering sharp lines with opposite sides castling and that is not to everyone's liking. This makes the great difference between the Dragon and the other Sicilian systems.

In this book we have analyzed the sharp variations, which have always been the focus of White's ambitions to refute the Dragon in a concrete and swift fashion (following the famous thesis of Robert Fischer: h2-h4-h5 and a checkmate...). We do not assert that the Dragon has been refuted, but we are practically convinced that Black has great problems to solve in all the variations and the players for the White side, who have studied this book thoroughly will be completely prepared to face all possible intricacies of this opening system.

In the first part of the book we have dealt with the Accelerated Dragon, this is the order of moves 2...Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6. We should mention here that by playing like this Black allows his opponent to enter the rather unpleasant Maroczy system in which Black's prospects of creating active counterplay are just minimal in comparison to the classical Dragon variation. I would recommend book 3a of the series "Opening for White According to Kramnik - 1.Nf3" to players who are interested in the correct treatment of the Maroczy system. In this book we have analyzed the more aggressive plan 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 (Yugoslav Accelerated Dragon), which usually leads to the main lines of the Yugoslav Attack in the Dragon variation. Black has some options to avoid similar developments and he can even force White to castle short in some variations. Still, all this is usually connected with a loss of tempi for him, or positional concessions and Black fails to solve his opening problems in this fashion as a rule.

In the second part of the book we have dealt with the main lines of the Dragon variation, that is the order of moves 2...d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6. We recommend to White to play 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 (We have also analyzed some relatively modern lines connected with 7...a6.) 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4. Our task has become more complex lately, because at the beginning of the year 2008 the Dragon variation attracted the attention of the Norwegian genius Magnus Carlsen and there have appeared numerous interesting games every month since. We hope that even in the most fashionable lines, some of which we have had to add to the book almost in an on-line regime, we have succeeded in pointing out the most promising concepts for White.

A.Khalifman

14th World Chess Champion