Truths of the Dragon

There was quite a surprise for me in the June 18th Late Titled Tuesday blitz. The current World No 5, Abdusattorov, played the Sicilian Dragon against me using the move, 15...h5, which I introduced myself long before he was born (and even before I bought my first computer).

It was at The Biel Open 1993, in a game against another future grandmaster, James Howell. Later I repeated this move in a 1995 game against GM Kudrin, but have almost never played it since, even in blitz, having doubts - about its objective soundness, and, even more, about its practical value. I shared these in the books Experts vs. the Sicilian and Understanding the Sicilian.

Let’s say that, despite draws versus J.Howell and Kudrin, I surely had more successful and hard-born Dragon novelties than this one.

And now... what’s that?

Perhaps, I was overly concerned or curious about whether Abdusattorov was serious or not. After making few normal moves and facing his later inaccuracy, I blundered in the silliest way (Nd6??) and lost.

The end.

But, well, not... One week later, in the last Titled Tuesday of June, I got and decided to use a chance to try this move with Black myself - against Shirov. And, as it happened, defeated him for the first time.

So far, all my games against Shirov were Sicilian Dragons with me, playing Black.
Two OTB draws, in the USSR junior championship 1985 and Bundesliga 2002, and two losses for me in Titled Tuesdays in 2022.

The Truths

The 9.0-0-0! direction is, objectively, the main headache for Black in the standard Dragon (even if, while working on my chapter of Experts vs. the Sicilian, I had hard times deciding between this move and 9.Bc4 as my suggested direction for White).

With the position after 15.h4! (Black has a few earlier deviations, which I can be ready to discuss again some other time) being important and problematic for Black, which was first emphasised, maybe, by the analyst Muchnik in an article in the Soviet magazine Shakhmatny Bulletin in 1978.

These days it can be considered to be rather unplayable (or too risky/impractical) for Black's OTB use I'm afraid. Particularly after modern engines started to show a frighteningly big advantage for White in the line 15…h6 (by far the most common move) 16.h5! (instead of the much more usual 16.g4, which is not bad as well) 16…g5 17.g4. This kind of structure for a long time, after some games, played in the 1980s, had a reputation of being just acceptable for Black. But now engines have a clearly different opinion, evaluating it as about +1 for White. Wow...

So, in the position after 15.h4! (and already after 14.Ne4!, because it’s highly unlikely that Black has a better answer to it than 14…Re8), 15…h5 can be Black's last serious hope, one way or another. 

Times

There is something curious about participating in chess life both before and then during the total computer invasion. It can even be considered a privilege that only a few generations of chess players got ... though not because we asked for it. Indeed, professional opening preparation is completely different in today's times of computer monsters, to what it used to be in the past. This topic can be discussed, using much more vibrant and dramatic examples and I did this already.

The Sicilian Dragon is strategically risky, always under existential threats, and using it OTB against well-prepared opponent is now arguably less fun than ever. Very few of my students are playing it: they all have different opening repertoires and I never insist on their choices.

So, it's good that there is also blitz and, in particular, Titled Tuesday, where whatever can be tried for whatever reason. Comparing present and past is one of my reasons, as you correctly understood, dear readers. By the way, in the 25th June’s Late TT I repeated my personal record in these tournaments, scoring 8/11 for the 4th time.

This year I’m kind of still able to find the motivation and energy to continue playing TTs, while the introduction of the overall Titled Cup competition among seniors has added some more hypothetical sense. And then... let's see.

Even grandmaster Kovalenko, my compatriot who is now serving in the Ukrainian army, plays in Titled Tuesdays when he gets the opportunity - and I wish him successes also there.

…Some particular games of mine from TTs (though not from each and every of the tournaments - surely), not necessarily "Dragons", objectively deserve to be shown to other people, as I think. But finding time also for writing blogs is constantly challenging. I have the impression that just about everyone wants video content instead these days. But this I have produced in my (ridiculously long?!) chess life as well, by co-authoring a chess TV program in 2012-2019. And I am not overly excited with a pure internet video format for any chess content, frankly speaking. Will try to write some more blogs this year.