The Sicilian Dragon Move by Move - Carsten Hansen. Everyman Chess, 2016 - 464 pages!!!
The Sicilian Dragon Move by Move - Carsten Hansen. Everyman
Chess, 2016 - 464 pages!!!
One of my desires, written in a hypothetical bucket list,
would be to play the Sicilian. From time to time I try, and then give up, because
the next tournament is coming, and my preparation is not over, then I forget
all of what I studied, because the theoretical material is quite overwhelming.
I must admit I had a bad experience with the Sicilian
Dragon. I tried to learn it, using the opening volumes written by GM Alburt et
al. many years ago, and I failed, but obviously the fault was mine, because I
didn't have a good learning system for the openings.
Recently there has been a revival of the Dragon. It began
with two DVDs made by Chessbase, the author was Carlsen's second for the 2016
world championship:
The Sicilian Dragon by GM Nielsen volumes 1 and 2
Followed by GM Gavain Jones with two volumes on the dragon!
Yes we are speaking of more than 640 pages!! How does
someone remember all the material, I honestly don't know. In this book there
are only 464 pages, BUT! The font is smaller than in other books of the Move by
Move series, so I guess they could be considered 500 or more pages. Plus the
author really delve into the material, without any non chess related comments
like other authors do. So it is clearly a work of love, where the author gave
all he knew on this opening.
Returning to my experience, I remember that before playing
it in a tournament, I played it online, and the results were clearly bad. Then
learning more about chess, I got traumatized by Fischer who mockingly would
refer to the Sicilian dragon as: Sac, Sac and Mate!
In any case, I didn't give up, because I like to play
exciting chess, and I think the Dragon fits my chess personality. Hence the
reason I have this volume, because I want to try to learn it, and see if I can
use it in my tournament games.
Let's now begin to review this wonderful book published by
Everyman Chess. The first thing I do, when I don't know a player is to discover
something about him, in this case the author is Carsten Hansen, a FIDE Master
from Denmark.
I noticed one thing we have in common, we both wrote book
reviews for the now defunct site: Chesscafe.
In Chessbase Megabase 2017 there are only 191 games played
by Hansen. He had a peak elo rating of 2313 in 1999, and nowadays is around 2270.
Since I didn't see games the author played in the book, I
looked in the database if he played the Sicilian Dragon, based on the lines he
gives in the book.
And out of 191 there are 10 games with the Sicilian Dragon,
based on the following opening moves: 1.e4,c5; 2.Nf3,d6; 3.d4,cxd4; 4.Nxd4,Nf6;
5. Nc3,g6;
As we can see it is a sharp opening, in which one can win or
lose quite easily. That's why I began this article talking about chess
personality, because I think we should learn openings which most fit our
personality. If inside we have a burning fire, then the Dragon is surely the
right way to express it. If instead we are like water, then maybe the French is
better.
Speaking of the book, it is divided in 3 parts:
Part 1 is the Non-Yugoslav attack, based on 4 different
chapters which examine all White's possibilities.
Chapter 1 is entitled Classical Dragon early deviations, and
based on the following line: 1.e4,c5; 2.Nf3,d6; 3.d4,cxd4; 4.Nxd4,Nf6; 5. Nc3,g6;
6. Be2,Bg7; 7. Be3,
Now let me tell you one thing I don't like of the book. This
book is clearly a repertoire for Black. The Sicilian Dragon is played by Black.
Still all the diagrams in the book are from White's side. This doesn't make
sense, because obviously a reader could try some visual exercises reading the
book without chess board. But with the diagrams from White's perspective that
becomes difficult.
I inserted the above moves in my main database, Megabase
2017, and I got as result more than 7000 games. The first one is from 1905, I
watched it because it was played by a player I care: Blackburne. Unfortunately
for Blackburne things didn't go well. I'd like to share some of the games I
saw, because they can give you an impression of the sharp play one could find
himself in.
For a serious study of this opening one should watch 60-80
games per line. This will give an idea of where to develop the pieces, and the
main tactical ideas, as well as the plans for both sides.
In the beginning of my chess learning, I didn't know I had
to watch a lot of games. But they are essential for learning an opening. In order
to avoid to get bored, I watch games with names of players I know, or who are
famous champions like the following:
Notice the result is not really important. The game teaches
us no matter the result. If White won, we learn why Black lost. If Black won,
we need to find the reason, especially if we plan to play the Dragon in
tournament, because our opponents with White will have analyzed the reasons
Black won, and likely found a way to neutralize it, or better understood the
position.
The author does a great job in outlining which deviations
are dangerous, and who are the main exponents. For example at page 10 after the
moves: 1.e4,c5; 2.Nf3,d6; 3.d4,cxd4; 4.Nxd4,Nf6; 5.Nc3,g6; 6.Be2,Bg7;
7.Be3,0-0; 8.0-0,Nc6; the author mentions that Kamsky's favourite is 9.Qd2.
Now once more becomes important the study of the classics,
because maybe Kamsky found such deviation thanks to the use of the database,
and the good results against the Black players at the end of the 1800, like in
the following game, where one of the best players in the world loses quite
easily.
Obviously I'm not doing all the homework for the readers of
this review. Since it would become boring, and too long. But if one reads the
book, he will know how to avoid the problems which afflicted Black in the
previous two games. In reality, and here comes handy the Megabase 2017, the
last game Kamsky vs Shabalov was deeply annotated also by GM Rogozenco, so
there are multiple sources to teach us how to play, and why.
Let me now lightly detail the two other parts of the book.
Part 2, also based on 4 chapters is dedicated to the
Yugoslav attack lines without Bc4.
The author warns us this is one of the most critical lines.
And of course the author outlines what Black needs to do, and what will find. He
is honest, and says one will have to sacrifice pawns, or play some exchange
sacrifice in order to generate activity and counter-play. This is why I say an
opening must fit our personality, we cannot play it just because a champion
did, or our best friend did. But at the same time the book becomes an
indispensable tool of self-discovery, because going over the games, deeply
annotated, one can decide if he likes it or not. Then like in all the series of
books Move by Move, the author intersperses the annotations to the game, with
questions we should answer, like in a training exercise.
In the second part, the line I found interesting, treated in
chapter 8, is the one with 9.g4, because clearly shows how fast an attack can
be, and Black must be definitely ready.
The third part is the biggest in the book with 8 chapters!
It treats the Yugoslav attack with Bc4. Many of the chapters bear the names of the
GMs that have contributed to the theory, like the Soltis variation: 1.e4,c5;
2.Nf3,d6; 3.d4,cxd4; 4.Nxd4,Nf6; 5.Nc3,g6; 6.Be3,Bg7; 7.f3,0-0; 8.Qd2,Nc6;
9.Bc4,Bd7; 10.0-0-0,Rc8; 11.Bb3,Ne5; 12.h4,h5;
Now, the good thing to have the best database in the world, is
that allows me to satisfy my curiosity, for example: when Soltis played it for
the first time, and if he was successful.
I inserted the position above, and the name Soltis, and the
result was 6 games, in which Soltis was Black, and the result was amazing! Out
of 6 games Soltis won 5, and drew 1!
I'd like to share two of them, because I love Soltis' books,
but I must admit, I never saw his games. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised
to see he was a tactical monster!
One last thing, the book has a total of 80 deeply annotated
games, which I think is really a lot of material, and shows Carsten Hansen
really worked hard!
At the end of the book, as customary, there are the index of
the variations, quite handy if one must locate a certain chapter for reference,
and the index of the games in alphabetical order.
I'm sure I didn't cover enough, but the topic is huge, and
it doesn't make sense to write something bigger than the book as review! I
believe Carsten Hansen did a good job in explaining the ideas behind many
moves, but once again, this opening is huge, and the book should come with some
memory pills, or a memory card to insert in our brains!
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