Andrew Greet: Starting Out - The Accelerated Dragon

Everyman Chess, paperback, Englisch, ISBN: 978-1-85744-530-5, 320 Seiten, 2008.

Fundamental coverage of a dynamic Sicilian.

The Accelerated Dragon is a dynamic choice for Black and arguably the most natural way to play the Sicilian Defence: Black develops rapidly and chooses the most active squares to place his or her pieces. Unknowing white players looking for a direct attack similar to the one used against traditional Dragon are shocked by Black's increased options due to the flexible move order. Instead, White sometimes employs a more positional approach incorporating the famous Maroczy Bind, when the battle centres on White's impressive pawn structure against Black's lively pieces and the ability to create a pawn break. The Accelerated Dragon was brought to prominence by the Danish chess legend Bent Larsen, while in more recent years its advocates have included World Championship Candidate Sergey Tiviakov.

This book is a further addition to Everyman's best-selling Starting Out series, which has been acclaimed for its original approach to tackling chess openings. International Master Andrew Greet, an Accelerated Dragon expert, revisits the basics of the opening, elaborating on the crucial early moves and ideas for both sides in a way that is often neglected in other texts. The reader is helped throughout with a plethora of notes, tips and warnings highlighting the vital characteristics of the Accelerated Dragon and of opening play in general. Starting Out: The Accelerated Dragon is a perfect guide for improving players and those new to this opening.

- User-friendly design to help readers absorb ideas
- Includes coverage of the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon
- Ideal for improvers, club players and tournament players

Reviews:

"A detailed work on the Accelerated Dragon with lots of games and analysis with probably only few errors, thanks to the use of several engines. Although the author is not always objective, this is compensated by the successful rest of the book. I recommend it to players rated >1500 with good english knowledge.", freechess.de.

"Conclusion: All together we have here a very important reference work on the Accelerated Dragon!", John Elburg, chessbooks.nl.

"All in all, IM Greet has done a very thorough job and this book can be readily recommended to all readers interested in getting to grips with this interesting opening. I'm sure that those who already have the Accelerated Dragon in their repertoire will find plenty of interesting material too.", Marsh Towers.

"Having read this book cover to cover, I recommend it to anyone who is eager to learn more about chess in general and the Accelerated Dragon in particular. This book is quite an achievement and it has much to offer to ambitious players. I also recommend it to those who already play the Accelerated Dragon, because it contains plenty of original material, and it is sure to deepen your understanding of the opening. For those playing the Open Sicilian as white, this book should be mandatory reading as well, you will learn how to face this opening, and more importantly what to avoid. This is the best opening book of the year!", Carsten Hansen, ChessCafe.com.

"Starting Out: The Accelerated Dragon is highly recommended for all those interested in taking up this opening. More experienced users will find gold scattered throughout the book in the form of well considered novelties and thoughtful advice but they should not be expecting a comprehensive up to date work - about 600 pages would be needed.", John Donaldson.

"...an excellent primer on this opening, which will be useful to players of a wide range of playing strengths. In a market containing several significant competitors, this book is now my clear top recommendation.", Phil Adams.