Accelerated Dragons

by John Donaldson, Jeremy Silman

Many players are attracted to the Dragon Sicilian, but are put off by the fierce mating attacks that White can launch. In the Accelerated Dragon, Black aims for an improved version, saving a move with his queen's pawn. If White tries to ignore the difference, Black's instant detonation of the centre will come as an unwelcome cold shower! The authors show that White's main reply, the Maroczy Bind, is not so fearsome as was once thought Black has many ways to break out, while quite often it is possible to manoeuvre around White's 'binding pawns' and show that they imprison White's pieces as much as they do Black's.

Genres: Chess

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

William John Donaldson is an International Master of chess since 1983, and an author, organizer, journalist. He was the leader of the US Team in several Chess Olympiads.

Reviews

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of the analysis is still good. Readers might want to add the following variation to their quiver:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 (...g6!? the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is still a valid reply) 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 (still considered the most critical variation) Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be2 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 O-O 10. Qd2 a5 11. O-O a4 12. f3 Qa5 13. Rac1 Be6

[Serge Pierro · Rating 3 out of 5]

As to be expected, John Donaldson delivers an excellent tome on the Accelerated Dragon and its related lines (including the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon). The book consists mainly of annotated games with sidelines, and as always, Donaldson's annotations are top notch.