Black's g6 introduces the Accelerated Dragon, one of the most famous and studied Sicilians. The accelerated dragon was developed in response to the problems with the regular Dragon, specifically the Yugoslav Attack (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3). The Yugoslav Attack was highly theoretical and risky for black, so the Accelerated Dragon was originally an anti-Yugoslav system, or, more broadly, a more center-focused dragon. Without 2...d6, black has not wasted a tempo that can be used in the attack, or even prevent the Yugoslav entirely.

In the 1930s-1940s however, the Maróczy Bind was discovered, that entirely prevents ..d5 by black. As explained in the link for the Maróczy below, there are significant challenges for black in this variation that require deep analysis to be handled. The exchange variation (5. Nxc6) is considered dubious for white, since ..bxc6 restrengthens d5 and allows the LSB to be developed to a6.

The Accelerated Dragon has considerably less theory than the mainline dragon, and often shifts the game from a counterattacking, sharp battle into a slower, positional one, which makes it a favourite Sicilian variation for classical. It is also a good variation for people new to the Sicilian to study, as it combines the flexibility of the Najdorf without the huge amounts of theory.

Moves:1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6

5. c4: Maroczy Bind

5. Nc3: Accelerated Dragon, Modern Variation

5. Nxc6: Accelerated Dragon, Exchange Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6

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• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.