So I wanted to create a thread where we can all share our discoveries / novelties / refutations.

For good measure, I will start out first.

I bought the course "Crush The Dragon" by Logozar on Chessable to check out what is recommended. Unsurprisingly, against the Accelerated Dragon he suggests the Maroczy Bind.

In the chapter on "Accellerated Dragon > Maroczy bind: 6.Nc2 mainline with 10...a5", there he gives the following position:

Moves: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Bg7 6.Nc2 d6 7.Be2 Nf6 8.Nc3 O-O 9.O-O Nd7 10.Bd2 a5 11.Na3 Nc5 12.Nab5 Nd4 13.Nxd4 Bxd4 14.Bh6

FEN: r1bq1rk1/1p2pp1p/3p2pB/p1n5/2PbP3/2N5/PP2BPPP/R2Q1RK1 b - - 1 14

Here he suggests " 14 ...Bxc3 15. bxc3 is very risky for Black as Black's kingside dark squares are weak and White has the bishop pair. 15... Re8 16. Qd4 ...e5 17. Qe3 and White can play f4 next to open the position for his bishop pair. The position should be objectively equal but White has easier play as he has the initiative.

I like to be critical however, so I checked it out some more. From my own study, I found that taking on c3 and doubling the c pawns, this robs white of a lot of dynamism. Because of the immobile pawn structure, his play on the queenside isn't powerful any longer so the only plan left is a kingside attack (since a lot of endgames will also be bad for him with the bad light squared bishop and suboptimal pawn structure). Tricky, perhaps. But I think in a lot of positions, this really is the way to go if the option is available.

And with a little help from LC0 I found a strong reply by black to 17. Qe3, which is the move:
17. ...Qh4!

This moves exploits the position of the bishop on h6 and in this way it prevents f2-f4. It also attacks the pawn on e4. So white will probably have to play either 18. f2-f3 (or maybe 18 Rad1, in which case we have ...Ra6 here).

After 18. f2-f3, black has 18 ...Ne6 with NextChessMove.com already giving -0.67 for black (black is slightly better). White has to be careful here, since we threaten g6-g5 trapping the bishop. For example 19. Rad1 here and now 19 ... g6-g5 winning the bishop.

This "trapping the h6 bishop" idea might be useful in your own games someday, for example in some cases you can play f7-f6 to install a dark square blockade (fight against white's dark squared bishop for example) and if there is a bishop on h6, then the threat can be g6-g5 again, which isn't always easy to see I think.

So after 18. f2-f3 ...Ne6, white's only good choice is 19. g2-g3 chasing the queen, but then just 19 ...Qh5. And f3-f4 again isn't available because the bishop would drop.

Both Stockfish and LC0 give 20. h2-h4 (-0.67), after which Lc0 suggests even that the time is right here for a counter break with 20 ...f7-f5 (thematic breaks in these lines are b7-b5, d6-d5 or d7-d5 and f7-f5, the first two will usually not be possible and the last one can be risky opening up the king). Here one of the ideas of f7-f5 is also to trap this bishop.

Finally, I want to add that after ...Ra6 to defend the d6 pawn, and then if white plays Rad1 or Rfd1, it can be very good for white if he can push c4-c5 here. So it's probably a good idea to try and avoid/prevent this.

Even if you don't play this line, I hope the ideas may prove useful to you.

Hyper Accelerated Dragon Club

Super Admins