1. Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon
You’ll face the mainline 1.e4 in many of your games.
So you need a reliable opening repertoire that you can use with the Black pieces — one’s that solid enough to hold off any engine lines and active enough to give you hopes of fighting for an advantage.
After many brainstorming sessions, our Grandmaster team found the one that matches our expectations perfectly — Sicilian Accelerated Dragon!
Below are some diagrams from the course:
Once you finish this opening, you’ll have a reliable repertoire that’ll serve you well even against the preparation of Grandmasters.
Additional Resources: Once you finish this course please watch the other 2 courses on Maroczy Bind setup starting with the standard Maroczy Bind first. Some White players prefer this setup against Accelerated Dragon so you must be prepared against it as well.
What you'll learn
- The strategies for both sides in the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon.
- A move-by-move guide, backed by cloud engines, to get a comfortable position with Black.
- Model games to show how you can handle the middlegame positions arising from the Accelerated Dragon opening.
Lesson Plan
58 episode(s) 3 hours 52 minStudents give this course an average of 5 out of 5 stars.
Muizzuddin Yaqeen
Faysal Akgül
Martin Wittke
David Hakhinyan
Vahe Suqiasyan
Deleted user
Devansh Shah
Sharan Sridhar
WIM_Siranush Ghukasyan
Max Cacciatore
Shahinur Haque
Prasanth T
GS
Artyom Manukyan
Mohit Bayyarapu
Jyotisko Sengupta
Giorgos Kechagias
md. redwan ullah
GM Avetik Grigoryan
After having a successful playing career where he became the Armenian Champion in 2010, GM Avetik Grigoryan found his passion for chess coaching and switched to it full-time.
Since then, he has guided many ambitious players to become Grandmasters and International Masters and has over 10 years of coaching experience.
He believes anyone can improve at chess, with the right mood and proper direction. And with that vision, he founded ChessMood in 2018.
After having a successful playing career where he became the Armenian Champion in 2010, GM Avetik Grigoryan found his passion for chess coaching and switched to it full-time.
Since then, he has guided many ambitious players to become Grandmasters and International Masters and has over 10 years of coaching experience.
He believes anyone can improve at chess, with the right mood and proper direction. And with that vision, he founded ChessMood in 2018.
The Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6.
As you can see from the opening, Black fianchetto their Bishop to the g7-square via g6. After that, they're ready to develop their Kingside pieces and castle.
Once fully developed Black wants to play the …d5 pawn break at the right time if given the chance.
After the 4…g6 move, White usually has 2 ways to respond:
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Continue normal development with 5.Nc3
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Play the Maroczy Bind setup, starting with 5.c4. Because the e4-pawn isn’t under attack, White has this option to play and clamp down on the center. The arising setup is known as Maroczy Bind.
So if you’re planning to play this opening with the Black pieces you ought to have a repertoire against both these systems.
History of the Accelerated Dragon
The first game in this opening was played between Hugh Alexander Kennedy - Marmaduke Wyvill in the London Knockout tournament in 1851. Black won the game.
The difference between Normal vs Accelerated vs Hyper-Accelerated Dragon
The normal Sicilian Dragon move order is 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6.
Black delays playing the pawn push …g6 till the 5th move.
In the beginning, you saw how the Accelerated Dragon starts. Black plays …g6 on the 4th move.
The Sicilian Hyper-Accelerated Dragon arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6. Here Black just takes 2 moves to play …g6.
So the difference between all the different types of Dragons is how fast Black plays the pawn push …g6 to fianchetto their Bishop. The faster Black fianchettos their Bishop in the opening, the more “accelerated” the line becomes.
Is the Accelerated Dragon sharp?
You’ll get active positions where you can attack and fight for an advantage, even with the Black pieces. At the same time, your position will be solid and a slight inaccuracy won’t immediately cost you the game.
So you can say the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon chess opening is a mix of aggressive and solid lines.
Is the Accelerated Dragon a good chess opening for Black?
With the likes of top chess players such as Gelfand, Ivanchuk and Dubov playing this line you can be assured that the Accelerated Dragon is a safe and sound opening.
In this opening, both sides have good chances to play for a win.
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