Accelerated Dragon #5

Ideas in the Accelerated Dragon

Idea #5 -  When white tries to prevent 8...d5 with 7.Bc4  --  Patterns to know

Let's take a look at the main line sequence:

1. e4        c5
2. Nf3     Nc6
3. d4       cxd4
4. Nxd4  g6
5. Nc3    Bg7
6. Be3    Nf6
7. Bc4    0-0

With 7.Bc4, White is signalling the intention to play a Yugoslav Attack while trying to prevent Black from playing 8...d5.  As usual, Black plays 7...0-0.   Now White proceed with caution, as it is easy to make a mistake.

Since Black will not be able to play 8...d5, I will show you 4 patterns to guide your response, depending on what White plays.

Pattern 1 -   White plays 8.f3 leaving the bishop on e3 undefended.

This position is common in amateur play.  White is continuing to try for the Yugloslav attack.
But 8.f3 is inaccurate for White, leaving the bishop on e3 unprotected.

Black can exploit this by playing 8...Qb6, attacking the unprotected pawn on b2, and an x-ray attack on the e3 bishop.

White's best choice is probably 9.Bb3, but this lets Black unleash the monster bishop with 9...Ng4 or 9..Nxe4 initiating tactics that favor Black.  (Note:  White can set a trap with 9.a3 hoping to trap the Black queen, but Black can avoid the poison pawn and play 9...Qc5.)



Pattern 2  -  White plays 8.Qd2 leaving the square g4 undefended.

This move is also common in amateur play.  White is again trying for a Yugoslav Attack, but unfortunately the move 8.Qd2 leaves the g4 square undefended.

Black takes advantage of this by playing 8...Ng4 with a discovered attack on the knight.

White cannot move the bishop without losing the knight, so will either have to give up his bishop for a knight, or play 9.Nxc6 with simplifications that favor Black.

Pattern 3 -   White plays 8.0-0 allowing the "fork trick"

Sometimes White gives up on a Yugoslav Attack and plays 8.0-0.

This allows the "fork trick" (a similar situation occurs in the Two Knights Defense) with 8...Nxe4.

If White recaptures with 9.Nxe4,  then 9...d5 forks bishop and knight.  

White can try 9.Bxf7+ leaving Black a rook on the semi-open f-file and two central pawns.

Pattern 4 -  White plays 8.Bb3 tempting the a-pawn to advance.

If White doesn't what to play into one of the 3 patterns above, the best move left is 8.Bb3, which avoids the fork trick, and might still lead to a Yugoslav Attack if Black complies.  This should probably be considered the main line.

The pattern for Black to notice here is a minor piece on b3.  When you see this, you should automatically consider 8...a5, threatening 9...a4.  

White has several replies, which will be covered in the next post.

Accelerated Dragon #4

Ideas in the Accelerated Dragon

Idea #4  -  If White doesn't prevent it, play 8...d5

As we saw in the post,  Accelerated Dragon #1, Black wants to play the d-pawn to d5 in one move.  When Black is able to do this, he generally equalizes.  And this move throws a wet blanket on White's plans for a Yugoslav Attack, or Classical Dragon.

As we saw in the post, Accelerated Dragon #2,  Black's first 7 moves are usually the same.  So move 8 is the right time to play ...d5.

Here is in interesting game where Black gets his way.

The next few posts will look at ways White tries to stop Black from playing ...d5.

Accelerated Dragon #3

Ideas in the Accelerated Dragon

Idea #3 -  Black's dark square bishop is a monster.

The moves 1...c5 and 2...Nc6 have softened up the central dark squares. Blacks bishop on g7 threatens to run amok on the a1 to h8 diagonal. White must always be on the lookout for discovered attacks when Black moves the f6 knight.

White would like to trade off Black's dangerous bishop. Plans with Qd2 and Bh6 are common, as is Nxc5 and Bd4. Unfortunately for White, these plans are usually 1 move too slow.

Black wants to avoid trading off his valuable bishop, unless he gets something substantial for it. This would be something like:

• Win of material.
• Double White's pawns on the half open c-file, especially if it exposes White's king after castling queenside
• Transition into a better endgame.

Black would especially like to trade one of his knights for White's dark square bishop. Then the monster on g8 will rule the dark squares unopposed.

Here is an example showing all these ideas.  Note: this does not represent best play by White, but all the moves seem plausible and often happen in amateur play.

Accelerated Dragon #2

Ideas in the Accelerated Dragon

Idea #2:  Black plays the same first 6  moves whenever possible, and usually castles on the 7th.

These moves are:  

1.e4        c5

2.Nf3     Nc6

3.d4       cxd4

4.Nxd4  g6

5.Nc3    Bg7

6.Be3    Nf6   

7.Bc4    0-0     

   or 7.f3      0-0  
   or 7.Qd2  0-0  
   or 7.Be2   0-0  
   or 7.Nb3   0-0  

Of course this only works if White cooperates.  We will look at deviations by white in later posts.

Accelerated Dragon #1

Ideas in the Accelerated Dragon

Idea #1 - Black wants to play ...d5 in one move

In the Sicilian Defense, ...d5 is generally an important freeing move for Black. With ...d5 and the resulting open lines in the center, White's plans of king side attack (with f3, g4, h4, h5 as in the Yugoslav Attack, or 0-0, f4, f5 as in the Classical Dragon) invite more risk for the first player.

In the standard Dragon move order, black plays an early ...d6, which means that ...d5 costs another tempo later. To illustrate the impact of this difference, we will compare two common Dragon strategies (the Yugoslav Attack, and the Classical Dragon) with the Accelerated Dragon.

Note: Of course, White does not have to allow Black to play the Accelerated Dragon. In particular, the Maroczy Bind and the Rossolimo Variation would derail Black's plans. But that is for another chapter.

How Do You Capture ?

How do you capture?

What I am wondering is:  when you perform a capture using real pieces on a real board, how would you describe the series of motions?

An Example

In this position,  White is about to make the capture 8.Qxg7

2 Patterns

Watching people play chess, I have observed 2 distinct patterns in how this is executed:

Pattern 1:

1. White picks up the pawn on g7.
2. Picks up the queen on g4 (holding both the queen and pawn in the same hand).
3. Places the queen on g7.
4. Hits the clock (pawn still in hand)
5. Places the pawn on the table.

Pattern 2:

1. White picks up the queen on g4.
2. Picks up the pawn while placing the queen on g7.
3. Hits the clock (pawn still in hand)
4. Places the pawn on the table.

Why would anyone use pattern 1 ?

In my career as a manufacturing process engineer, I have been trained to identify and eliminate wasted motion.  Clearly, pattern 1 takes one more arm movement than pattern 2.  If there were a work instruction for capturing a piece, I would require the use of pattern 2 so as not to wast time.

Strangely, my observation is that stronger players (masters and up) tend to use pattern 1 more than than lower rated players.  My best guess is that these players learned to play chess before they were old enough to hold both pieces in their hand at the same time, so they actually picked up the pawn (step 1) then placed it on the table (step 5) before moving the queen (steps 3 and 4).

Why you should use pattern 2

• Fewer arm motion steps (this could be critical in time trouble).
• The arm does not have to change direction as sharply in most cases (again time savings)
• The order of the steps matches the notation:
• 8.Qxg7 (the queen on g4 takes the pawn on g7)
• Not  the pawn on g7 is captured by the queen on g4
• Touch move rule:
• If you touch the pawn first, you are obliged to capture it (with only one option)
• If you touch the queen first, you are obliged to move it (with 14 legal options)
• The less committal option could allow you more options to salvage a mistake.
• Less likely to misplace the piece (I have seen the queen put back on the wrong square)
• It just looks cooler

Your thoughts?

If you use pattern 1, please leave a comment explaining why.

Clock Progress - Wood Cut for Case

The wood is all cut out for the clock case.  For this first attempt, I used some cheap 1/2 pine craft board from Lowes so I could make all of my mistakes at a low cost.   If this turns out, I may re-build it with some nicer wood.

Next is sanding, gluing and staining.  Then the lever mechanism and the electronics will be stuffed inside and I will have a real chess clock.