Dragons of the Olympiad 2026 - The Monthly Dragon

by Arne Kaehler
10/28/2026 – In this Olympiad special of the Monthly Dragon, Chris Ward looks at five Dragon games from a wide range of rating levels and shows just how successful the opening was in Samarkand. The examples highlight typical Dragon themes such as pressure on the c file, the strength of the dark squared bishop, exchange sacrifices, tactical ideas around the queenside and the importance of knowing the right plans once the opening theory ends. Chris also examines several instructive mistakes, showing how quickly a position can collapse when White loses track of key Dragon motifs. | Photo: John Upham
In this first part, the emphasis is on themes and ideas whereas Part 2 and 3 focus on theoretical knowledge!

The Monthly Dragon

with GM Chris Ward

The British Grandmaster Chris Ward is always delighted if he can play his favourite opening as Black: the Sicilian Dragon.

Ward's knowledge about this strong opening is covered in several of his books, his blog on chesspublishing and his three, greatly popular FritzTrainers in our ChessBase shop.

In this first part, the emphasis is on themes and ideas whereas Part 2 and 3 focus on theoretical knowledge!

With the new ChessBase series "The Monthly Dragon", the passionate Salsa dancer is showing us the newest tactics, plans and development of this fascinating opening.

Lucky for us, the dragon is an opening, played by some of the best players in the world. This means, Chris probably won't run out of fuel for new content.

Full analysis by Chris Ward

In this first part, the emphasis is on themes and ideas whereas Part 2 and 3 focus on theoretical knowledge!

Links:

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Topics: Chris Ward, Fritztrainer, Sicilian Dragon
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
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Nepo has dragon problems - The Monthly Dragon

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