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Do people still play the dragon?

Do people still play the dragon?

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z

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I was in the general forum and a guy was talking about how his friend beat Xanthos. Looking at the game it was a dragon. Game 2292182

Do people still play the dragon? I suppose as this is CC you can cross-check razor edge variations from a book/db.

RS

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Originally posted by z00t
I was in the general forum and a guy was talking about how his friend beat Xanthos. Looking at the game it was a dragon. [gameid]2292182[/gameid]

Do people still play the dragon? I suppose as this is CC you can cross-check razor edge variations from a book/db.
I think the dragon just sounds cooler then it rly is..its still a reasonable opening though -.-

c

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Originally posted by z00t
I was in the general forum and a guy was talking about how his friend beat Xanthos. Looking at the game it was a dragon. Game 2292182

Do people still play the dragon? I suppose as this is CC you can cross-check razor edge variations from a book/db.
Are you kidding? Actually the only three I can think of off the top of my hear are me, !~Tony~!, and XanthosNZ. But I use it as my main defense to 1.e4 both on here and OTB - check the "I challenge" thread and game, or some of mine or !~Tony~!'s games as black. !~Tony~! is completely obsessed with it, he actually got me interested in playing it. I basically just play the lines suggested in Play the Sicilian Dragon (which is an awesome book) which means I only use the 12...h5 Soltis variation, and I'm pretty sure !~Tony~! does the same thing.

z

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One of the games that convinced me not to play the dragon as black is the guy who was lynched by Fischer. Black is living dangerously.

See http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1888

A

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I use it as my secondary defense to 1. e4, after the Sicilian Kan.

I love playing both the White and Black side of the Dragon, never a boring game with it.

w
If Theres Hell Below

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I started playing dragon recently, and like it very much. none of that sluggish development of najdorf, and it's always crush or be crushed. you need to watch out for the kingside attack, but if you know what you're doing it's all good.

z

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This is the game I was talking about :-

[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
[Site "-"]
[Date "1958.08.16"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Robert James Fischer"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "62"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Be6 11. Bb3 Qa5
12. O-O-O b5 13. Kb1 b4 14. Nd5 Bxd5 15. Bxd5 Rac8 16. Bb3 Rc7
17. h4 Qb5 18. h5 Rfc8 19. hxg6 hxg6 20. g4 a5 21. g5 Nh5
22. Rxh5 gxh5 23. g6 e5 24. gxf7+ Kf8 25. Be3 d5 26. exd5 Rxf7
27. d6 Rf6 28. Bg5 Qb7 29. Bxf6 Bxf6 30. d7 Rd8 31. Qd6+ 1-0

c

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Originally posted by z00t
This is the game I was talking about :-

[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
[Site "-"]
[Date "1958.08.16"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Robert James Fischer"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "62"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 ...[text shortened]... exd5 Rxf7
27. d6 Rf6 28. Bg5 Qb7 29. Bxf6 Bxf6 30. d7 Rd8 31. Qd6+ 1-0
Check the date there, Zoot, that game's completely out of date.

z

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Originally posted by cmsMaster
Check the date there, Zoot, that game's completely out of date.
However it has a psychological effect on me and many others. I can almost hear the terminator music playing. I know there is loads of theory including an exchange sac but defending the dragon is not for me.

Still as you will see on ChessBase, Fischer's game is one of the inspirations for the Yugoslav or whatever attack is in fashion.

w
If Theres Hell Below

We're All Gonna Go!

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Originally posted by z00t
This is the game I was talking about :-

[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
[Site "-"]
[Date "1958.08.16"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Robert James Fischer"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[ECO "B77"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "62"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 ...[text shortened]... exd5 Rxf7
27. d6 Rf6 28. Bg5 Qb7 29. Bxf6 Bxf6 30. d7 Rd8 31. Qd6+ 1-0
isn't that 12.o-o-o a clear mistake from fischer? 12...Bxb3 and both possible recaptures look pretty silly. and the 17...Qb5 looks like a big mistake from larsen. just the kind you get when you underestimate white's kingside attack...

23...e5 another blunder from larsen. was this really a slow game?

z

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An interzonal is part of the FIDE cycle to find GMs to play candidate matches for the world championship. That was a slow game and a very important one. Don't forget that nowadays on the Sicilian it has been extensively analysed while Fischer and co were the pioneers.

c

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Originally posted by z00t
An interzonal is part of the FIDE cycle to find GMs to play candidate matches for the world championship. That was a slow game and a very important one. Don't forget that nowadays on the Sicilian it has been extensively analysed while Fischer and co were the pioneers.
Well the Yugoslav has clearly come a long way for both sides since then...

c

USA

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I play the dragon, but I always get scared when I play the yugoslav, though so far I haven't lost (at least, due to the attack) yet....

A

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Originally posted by wormwood
isn't that 12.o-o-o a clear mistake from fischer? 12...Bxb3 and both possible recaptures look pretty silly. and the 17...Qb5 looks like a big mistake from larsen. just the kind you get when you underestimate white's kingside attack...

23...e5 another blunder from larsen. was this really a slow game?
This game was included in Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games". This is a quote from the book: "After 12...Bxb3 13.cxb3! Black cannot make any attacking headway against this particular pawn configuration. White is lost in the King and Pawn endgame, it's true, but Black usually gets mated long before then."

Commenting on 17...Qb5, Fischer states "There's no satisfactory way to impede White's attack." and then gives a fair amount of analysis showing that 17...h5 fails to hold.

23...e5 loses, but so does everything else. Fischer gives some brief analysis demonstrating that 23...e6 is insufficient.

It was Fischer's opinion that Larsen's major error was 15...Rac8?, giving preference to 15...Nxd5. Incidentally, he was also somewhat critical of his own 15.Bxd5, believing that 15.exd5 was an improvement (as played in Tal-Larsen, Zurich 1959).

n
The Ever Living

Third Earth

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Originally posted by z00t
I was in the general forum and a guy was talking about how his friend beat Xanthos. Looking at the game it was a dragon. Game 2292182

Do people still play the dragon? I suppose as this is CC you can cross-check razor edge variations from a book/db.
I think the Dragon is struggling theoretcally at the highest level and a lots of the worlds top adherants like Tiviakov and Federov will only play it via an Accelerated Dragon move order to avoid some of the more difficult lines like 9.0-0-0.........however at our level where we are not blessed with their geneius I think most openings are playable (even the Latvian Gambit!)

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