PLAY THE SICILIAN DRAGON
Author: Edward Dearing
256 pages
$27.50
Oversize paperback (7 by 10 inches)
Gambit (2004)
www.gambitbooks.com

Reviewed by John Donaldson

PLAY THE SICILIAN DRAGON by Edward Dearing is a very impressive debut by the Scottish International Master. There has been a need for a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the Dragon for some time and this book goes far in fulfilling this. Earlier works by Levy, Schneider, Mayer, Golubev and Ward are either too old or too narrowly focused (for example Ward’s fine 2nd edition, published in 2001, focuses primarily on his favorite – the ...Qa5 and ...Rfc8 line). Dearing’s book suffers neither of these failings. It covers most of the Dragon lines (we will look at this in a moment) and is quite up to date with game references from 2004 sprinkled throughout. The bibliography is extremely thorough with twenty specialist Dragon books cited. The only works I found missing were the Schiller and Gufeld book SECRETS OF THE SICILIAN DRAGON (1998) and Goran Kosanovic’s SICILIAN DRAGON: THE COMPLETE BLACK REPERTOIRE (1994), but neither is particularly relevant to present day theory.

When one thinks of the Dragon, the first thing that comes to mind is the Yugoslav Attack with both sides castled on opposite wings and fierce attacks brewing. The position after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 is probably the key position in the Dragon. Black has the following ways of playing.

A. 10...Qb8

B. 10...Nd7

C. 10…Qa5

D. 10…Rc8 with ...Ne5 and no ...h5

E. 10…Rc8 with ...Ne5 and ...h5.

F. 10...Rb8

G. 10...Rc8 11.Bb3 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5

You will not find A, B and D in this book and C is dealt with primarily from White’s point of view. This makes sense as these lines, though employed by some GMs, do not enjoy the best of reputations. Dearing offers variation E, the Soltis variation (10...Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 h5) as the proposed backbone of Black’s repertoire. F, the Chinese variation (10...Rb8), a very recent addition to Black’s resources, gets its first extensive treatment in book form. Also covered is G, Topalov’s idea, which just as commonly arises from Accelerated Dragon move orders where the Bishop gets committed early to b3. A cousin of Topalov’s line, 10.Bb3 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5, again which more commonly arising from the Accelerated, is not examined in this book. Dearing notes that White’s most promising treatment consists of castling short and playing for a positional advantage.

As a player who enters the Yugoslav Attack from the move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Bb3 d6, and who has been attracted to the Topalov system, I often wondered why after 9.f3 Bd7 White doesn’t play 10.h4 or in the regular Dragon move order 10.h4 instead of 10.0-0-0. Dearing explains this very well. Throughout the chapters on the Yugoslav Attack he emphasizes time and again that the most difficult lines for Black to meet are those where White plays positionally. Enemy number one for Dragon players are not the main lines of the Soltis variation where Black is holding up, but the crafty 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1 where 12...Nc4 is strongly met by 13.Bxc4 Rxc4 14.g4!. This line is causing Black fits. More to the point these days is the equally subtle 12...Re8!?.  I suppose it is possible to figure out all the little nuances of this line with an unannotated database of games and some serious study time. But would you want to teach yourself calculus from scratch? I found Dearing’s explanation of the respective strategies to be very clearly written and quite enlightening, and I had my answer. Most players don’t venture an early h4 in the Yugoslav attack as it prevents them from reaching the dangerous line with 12.Kb1. Once White has committed to an early h4 the Soltis variation becomes quite attractive.

While almost half of PLAY THE SICILIAN DRAGON is devoted to the Yugoslav Attack, many diehard Dragon devotees upon getting this book will immediately jump to the chapters on 9.0-0-0. This line has been doing quite well, so well that players like Tiviakov and Alterman often use an Accelerated Dragon move order, fearing the Maroczy less than 9.0-0-0. Dearing is a 9...d5 man who has no faith in the alternatives 9...Nxd4 and 9...Bd7. Since GM Mikhail Golubev recently wrote the chapter in how to play against the Dragon in EXPERTS vs. the SICILIAN, and advocated 9.0-0-0, I was curious to see how the two books would compare. The critical point seems to be reached after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0–0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0–0–0 d5 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Bd4 e5 13.Bc5 Be6 14.Ne4 Re8 15.h4 h6 16.g4 Qc7 17.g5 h5 18.Bc4 Red8 19.Qf2 Qb7 20.Rhe1 Nf4 21.Bxe6 Nxe6

Now Dearing gives 22.Nf6+ Bxf6 23.gxf6 Qa6 24.a3 Qc4 with good play for Black by way of an antidote to the Ehlvest treatment versus Marin, Calcutta 1997. Golubev gives 22.Bd6 Rd7 23.Rd2 Rad8 24.Red1 as slightly better for White, though it looks like a position Black can tolerate, 24...Qb6 or 24...Qb5 are both worth a look.

Much of the rest of PLAY THE SICILIAN DRAGON is more of an opening repertoire book, the lines being not as theoretically critical. Dearing has a preference for meeting many of the classical lines with an ...a6 treatment. I think this is particularly good advice against the seldom played Rabinovich Attack – 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Be2 Nc6 8.Nb3 0-0 9.f4 and now 9...Be6 10.g4 leads to the Rabinovich. Dearing likes 9...a6, which takes the sting out of f4-f5 with no Bishop to attack on e6.

PLAY THE SICILIAN DRAGON has a very informative fifteen-page introduction and plenty of prose to explain things throughout the book. Per the usual Gambit standards, this oversized book is attractively laid out and well produced. Dragon fanciers of all levels from 1800 on up will want to have it.

Highly Recommended.

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