The Monthly Dragon - How to win against 9. Bc4!

by Arne Kaehler
2/28/2025 – In the main line of the Yugoslav Attack, the ninth move Bc4 is nearly as popular as castling long. While Bd7 remains the most common response, Chris has some excellent alternative suggestions that can give Black an edge. Interestingly, Bc4 recently proved to be a nightmare for co-host Arne Kaehler, as Chris thoroughly enjoyed predicting and countering Arne’s "amateur" plans. | Photo: John Upham

Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1,2 and 3 + Sicilian Dragon Powerbook + Powerbase Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1,2 and 3 + Sicilian Dragon Powerbook + Powerbase

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

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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.

Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1-3

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

Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1,2 and 3 + Sicilian Dragon Powerbook + Powerbase

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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The Monthly Dragon - Tiger or alligator? Who will win?

1/17/2025 – It's still the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, but on the 29th of January, it will turn into the Year of the Snake. But for Chris Ward, every year is the Year of the Dragon, and new games continue to show up month by month. In this episode, Chris examines the variation without f3 for White. What are the plans? How should they be countered? The English GM knows it all. | Photo: John Upham
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The Monthly Dragon - The curious case of Qe2 and a CHRISmas cracker!

12/13/2024 – The mainline in the Yugoslav attack, is constantly played on a higher level. But what happens, if instead of moving the queen to d2, it goes to e2? Chris Ward says, shows us how to play against this attempt, and gain a good advantage for Black. Furthermore, the English GM has a recent, super entertaining game for us, where two chess legends battle it out - dragon style! | Photo: John Upham
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Video

60m How to fight Queen's Pawn Openigns

After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4. This is not very ambitious, but the painful experience of many chess players has been that the Colle System, the Trompowsky Attack, the Torre Attack and the London System are nevertheless extremely dangerous. Black has to be prepared for each of these openings and IM Valeri Lilov offers you some help with his six instructive videos, in which he demonstrates for each single opening a relevant plan for Black. In addition to the openings mentioned, the Bulgarian trainer also delves into the Catalan, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and the Richter-Veresov Opening.