FICGS - Wikichess - Article 6626

A move that usually means a transposition to lines arising from 6.Be3. Yet it is critical if you want to play the Dragon for two reasons:

i) many weak players are prone to play it because they -mistakenly- fear to play 6.Be3 because the apparent possibility of 6...Ng4. So you have to be ready to face this move;

ii) some strong players could play 6.f3 because they're setting a trap, as we will see. A grandmaster will easily see the point over the board. You, that presumably are not a grandmaster, should study the trap in order to not fall in it.

May I add that are two reasons because of a chess move is *critical*:

a) because it is presumably best, or at least it is good enough to atract many strong players, so the move must be studied because -due to its popularity- people will play it often;

b) because it is far from best, but you -that are not a grandmaster- could easily go astray when facing it over the board without knowing about it in advance. So, if you want to play the Dragon -in this case- you *must* to be knowledgeable about the move.

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Contributors : Telmo Escobar

[ECO "B70"] [Opening "Sicilian"] [Variation "Dragon variation"]

Bg7 : 21 games, White ELO av : 1701, Black ELO av : 1678
1-0 : 33.3% , 1/2-1/2 : 19% , 0-1 : 47.6%

Nc6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1983, Black ELO av : 2163
1-0 : 0% , 1/2-1/2 : 50% , 0-1 : 50%

Qb6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1906, Black ELO av : 1770
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%

a6 : 1 game, White ELO av : 2247, Black ELO av : 2017
1-0 : 100% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 0%

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