Accelerated DragonB34 – B39
In the ordinary Dragon Black plays …d6 early, and White answers with the Yugoslav Attack — Be3, f3, Qd2, O-O-O and h4 — one of the most dangerous attacking systems in chess. The Accelerated Dragon changes one move order to take the sting out of it: the knight comes to c6 and the bishop to g7 before the d-pawn moves, so that when White sets up the attack, Black can often answer with …d5 in a single step, or trade on d4 and hit e4 with the bishop and queen instead. The price is the Maróczy Bind. With …d6 not yet played, White can put pawns on c4 and e4 and clamp down on d5, and the game becomes a slow, manoeuvring fight in which Black trades pieces to relieve the cramp and waits for …b5 or …f5. Know that the Bind is coming and learn to enjoy it; everything else in this opening is easier.
Played by
- Bukhuti Gurgenidze — the Georgian grandmaster whose way of meeting the Maróczy Bind — trade on d4, then fianchetto — carries his name
- Bent Larsen — one of the strongest players to use it regularly, in an era when the Maróczy Bind was supposed to have made it unplayable
Model game
Ivkov – Larsen, Hoogovens, Beverwijk 1964
Next: e4
