Sicilian Defence (Dragon Variation)

Black prepares to fianchetto their dark-square bishop. From g7 this bishop will exert considerable pressure over the centre and facilitate a queen's side attack. However, 5...g6 weakens Black's kingside pawn structure and encourages White to pursue a king's side attack of their own.

6. Be3 is the main move. This usually leads to the Yugoslav attack, where White castles queen's side and tries to pawn storm on the king's side. Because both players are attacking on opposite wings, there is no time to be lost for either side and subtle manoeuvring will tend to take a back seat to sharp tactics.

6. Be2, the classical variation, is the main alternative, where White prepares to castles short and away Black's powerful bishop. This is a less sharp continuation.

Less common approaches include:

6. f4 is the Levenfish attack. This postpones matters of development to take space and prepare the trappy move e5, an immediate assault on the centre.

6. g3 is the fianchetto variation. This prepares Bg2 and O-O.

The term "dragon" for this line has been used in German since at least the 1910s; Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky later claimed to have invented the name in 1901, inspired by Black's pawn structure's resemblance to the constellation Draco (the dragon).^[1][2]

The dragon is one of the most Sicilians. The viciousness of White's Yugoslav attack led to some players adopting the accelerated move order, where Black avoids playing ...d6 in the hope of playing ...d5 in one tempo later. Between them, the dragon and accelerated dragon are common recommendations as less theory-dense alternatives to the Najdorf.

Among its highest levels outings was in the 1995 PCA World Championship, where Viswanathan Anand's attacks crashed and burned against Garry Kasparov's dragon Sicilian.^[3][4]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6

Wikipedia has related information at Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation.

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