The Monthly Dragon - Fianchetto with White? Denied by Magnus!

by Arne Kaehler
8/30/2025 – In the newest episode of Monthly Dragon, Chris Ward explores recent games in the Dragon, focusing on the fianchetto system where White plays g3. He analyzes key ideas, such as when White captures on c6 and pushes e5, showing how Black can calmly defend and even gain the upper hand, illustrated through a game where an English IM defeated a GM. Finally, Ward highlights a Magnus Carlsen game in the hyper-accelerated Dragon, where Magnus outmaneuvered his opponent with patient queen shifts, central tactics, and a brilliant finish, proving once again the richness of the Dragon.| 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:

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.