The Monthly Dragon - Introducing: The Hungarian Dragon!

by Arne Kaehler
8/14/2023 – One opening variation in the Sicilian Dragon is getting more and more popular. The Hungarian Dragon! A somewhat "safer" Dragon than usual, with a twisty idea to push h5 forward very soon, and avoid all of White's pawn rushes better. Dragon tamer Chris Ward shows us a game, probably inspired by Richard Rapport, where our Dragon bishop causes some havoc on h3, instead of g2!| 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

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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Nc6 7.f3 h5 8.Qd2 Nxd4 9.Bxd4 Bh6 Introducing the 'Hungarian Dragon' which was a system discussed in the real deal Dragon series but is making its debut here on the Monthly Dragon. 10.Be3 Rather appealing (and covered in more detail then in the real deal) is the game: 10.Bb5+ Bd7 11.Qd3 Bc6! (key is not just to trade light-squared bishops and allow the white knight to ultimately occupy a d5-outpost following a Bxf6). 12.0-0 0-0 13.Bxf6 exf6 14.Kh1 Qb6 15.a4 15.Qxd6? Rad8 16.Qxf6 Bg7 17.Qg5 Bxc3 18.Bxc6 Bd2 drops a piece. 15...Qc5 16.Rfd1 Rfd8 17.Nd5 Kg7?! Presumably a practical decision to keep on more pieces to try for the win. Clearly there was nothing wrong with the simple 17...Bxd5 18.Qxd5 18.exd5?! Rac8 hits c2 as well as threatening the bishop trapping ...a6. 18...Qxc2 19.Bc4 Rd7 although long term the presence of opposite-coloured bishops makes things more drawish. 18.b4 Qf2 19.Bc4 Rac8 20.c3 Qh4 21.g3 Qh3 22.Qd4 Bxd5 23.Bxd5?! 23.Qxd5 Rc7 with equal chances but Black can be happy with the way things have turned out. 23...h4! 24.Rg1 Obviously not 24.g4?? Qxf3+ 25.Kg1 Be3+ 24...Bf4‼ 25.Rg2 The point being 25.gxf4 Qxf3+ 26.Rg2 h3 25...hxg3 26.Qxa7 White is now clearly in trouble. Rh8 27.Re1 Rxc3 The crowd (if this hadn't all been happening so quickly!) may have been after 27...Qxg2+ 28.Kxg2 Rxh2+ 29.Kg1 Rch8 30.Kf1 Rb2 31.Kg1 g2 but Black's selection is more than adequate! 28.Bxf7 Kxf7 29.Qxb7+ Kg8 30.e5 Qxh2+! At last! 31.Rxh2 Rxh2+ 32.Kg1 Be3+ 33.Kf1 Or 33.Rxe3 Rc1+ 33...g2+ 0-1 as seen in Saric,I (2669)-Rapport,R (2763) Warsaw POL 2021 10...Bxe3 11.Qxe3 Be6 12.Bd3 Instead the text is fairly innocuous but White has clearly decided that his king will be going short rather than long. So for example 12.Bb5+ Kf8 13.Ba4 Qa5 14.0-0 Rc8 15.Bb3 Qc5 is more than fine with 16.Rfe1 Nd7 17.Rad1 Qxe3+ 18.Rxe3 Kg7 19.h4 Ne5 20.Rd2 Rc5 21.Ne2 Bc4! 22.Nd4 b5 23.Re1 Rhc8 24.c3 a5 leaving Black with a handy queenside initiative in Ter Sahakyan,S (2531)-Rapport,R (2802) Almaty 2022. 12...Qa5 13.0-0 Rc8 An obvious developing move, not exactly threatening an exchange sac on c3 yet but certainly bringing ...Qc5 into play. 14.Kh1 Preventing that aforementioned queen swap manoeuvre that was allowed with 14.Rae1 Qc5 15.Qxc5 Rxc5 when 16.a3 g5! was more than satisfactory for Black in Rodchenkov,S (2346)-Tay,J (2230) Chess.com INT 2022. 14...a6 The two moves that feature soon anyway 14...Qc5 and 14...h4 both look very reasonable here too. 15.f4 Maybe White could try relocating his knight but that aside, having castled kingside, especially with the black king in the centre, the advance of the f- and/or e-pawn makes most sense. Qc5 Attractive after the immediate 15...h4!? is that 16.f5 can be met by h3! with 17.fxe6? So White should choose 17.g3 with gxf5 18.exf5 Bd5+ quite nice for Black. 17...hxg2+ 18.Kxg2 Rxh2+! 19.Kg1 19.Kxh2 Ng4+ drops the queen whilst 19.Kg3 Qh5 will end in mate! 19...Ng4 a serious problem for the white king which is exposed along the h- and g-files as well as the c5-g1 diagonal. Upon 20.Qd4 Qh5 mate is unavoidable! 16.Qd2 Perhaps not the best square for her majesty but certainly White hadn't played Kh1 only to allow a queen trade. h4! This is a fast paced game of which I'm reluctant to include these days unless involving the best of the best. Though good players are involved, the reason I've made an exception here is because the game flows nicely with the some standard ideas that highlight the appeal of this Black system that has been scoring well in practice. 17.f5 As previously implied, White is looking to punish his opponent on the f- and e-files. Nh5!? The black steed slots nicely in here and of course with the pawn on h4, now ...Ng3 options come to the party. 18.Rf2 For example of course 18.fxe6?? Ng3+ 19.hxg3 hxg3+ Yep that's the problem with locking the king in the corner with White's last move then facilitating a return to g1. 18...gxf5 19.exf5 Ng3+ This knight is still out of bounds. 20.Kg1 Yes 20.hxg3? hxg3+ 21.Kg1 gxf2+ 22.Qxf2 Rh1+ isn't advisable! 20...Nxf5 21.Ne4?! A natural posting for the white knight but this needed to be prepared first. Specifically being a pawn down White had to avoid the swap of queens and 21.Re1! covering the e3-square and with the rooks at least aimed in the direction of the black king, might have tendered some compensation. 21...Qe3! 22.Qxe3? Though the black queen is on a dominant post, this trade is rather wet and from a practical perspective probably 22.Qb4 should have been tried. 22...Nxe3 23.Re1 Ng4 24.Rf4 Ne5 Black is sitting very pretty with good pieces, an extra pawn and a conveniently centralised king. 25.Ng5 Nxd3 26.cxd3 Bxa2 Make that two pawns! 27.Ra4 Bd5 28.Rd4 Rc5 29.b4 Rb5 30.Ne4 Bxe4 31.Rexe4 Kd7 32.Rxh4 Rxh4 33.Rxh4 Rd5 34.Rf4 f6 35.d4 Rb5 36.h4 Ke8 Black will regain his two pawn lead shortly so the outcome isn't in question. 37.h5 Not helping but it would have been this one, the b-pawn or the d-pawn! Rxh5 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ljukin,S2362Bernadskiy,V25450–12023B72Titled Tue 25th Jul Early1

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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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