Accelerated Dragon

I received a message from David Flude asking why I don’t consider playing the Accelerated Dragon. Well, i suppose the answer is that I have never been fully trusting of fianchetto systems in the Sicilian for some reason. I very much enjoy playing against Dragon and Accelerated Dragon type positions. Anyway, as I had an opponent who was likely to play the Accelerated Dragon in my ICC team league, I took a look at the opening, though i have to say it was just a cursory glance. I may be doing it an injustice but there seemed to be a number of systems where white had a fairly easy game or where even black was struggling. I myself chose a system to play that was really easy to get a good game from and I was able to convert the full point. Of course, this is just one sytem, but I’m not happy about changing to the Accelerated Dragon as my main black opening.

[Event “ICC 45 45”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2010.05.09”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Gorka, C.”]
[Black “Anon”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B36”]
[WhiteElo “2200”]
[BlackElo “2135”]
[Annotator “C. Gorka”]
[PlyCount “81”]
[EventDate “2003.12.21”]
[EventType “match”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. Be2 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 {This was my preparation from a game between Dvoiris and Inarkiev} (9. Bg5 {is probably the main move} Qa5 10. Qd2) (9. O-O O-O {and white has to find a place for his queen and the best spots block his dark squared bishop. This is why I decided to delay castling.}) 9… O-O 10. Qd2 a5 {My opponent had played this type of plan before so I was expecting a5-a4.} 11. O-O a4 12. Rad1 {Forgetting my own preparation! But this is not a bad move.} (12. Bd4 Be6 13. Qe3 Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Nd5 Re8 16. Rad1 Bxd5 17. exd5 Qb6 18. Qc3+ Kg8 19. Rd4 Qa5 20. Qc1 Nf6 21. a3 Rec8 22. Qe3 Qd8 23. h4 Qf8 24. Re1 Re8 25. Qd2 Nd7 26. h5 Qg7 27. Bd1 Nc5 28. Re3 Rab8 29. Rh4 b6 30. Reh3 b5 31. cxb5 Rxb5 32. hxg6 hxg6 33. Qf4 e5 34. Qh2 Kf8 35. Rh7 Rxb2 36. Rxg7 Rb1 37.
Rxf7+ Kxf7 38. Rh7+ Kg8 39. Qh6 {1-0 Dvoirys-Inarkiev Russian ch 2001. My game was amazingly similar to this.}) 12… Be6 13. Bd4 {Remembering the plan!} Qa5 14. Qe3

{Now there are Bb6 themes} Rfc8 15. Nd5 Bxd5 16. exd5 {After this exchange, e7 is a worry for Black. In the Dvoiris game the dark squared bishops were exchanged which made the kingside weaker but seemed to relieve some pressure on the e-file. In this game Black gets rather tied up.} Qd8 17. Rfe1 Nd7 (17… b5 {was a move that had me a little worried in the game. I couldn’t work out what was happening.}) 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 {This position is very similar to the game Dvoirys-Inarkiev so I just followed the plan from that game.}

19. h4 {Open the h-file and bring heavy pieces to the h-file} Rc7 (19…Nf6 {might be alright, but I was going to push anyway} 20. h5 ) 20. h5 Nf6 21. Rd4 gxh5 {This made me think. It surely can’t be right to open the king side like this, but I found it really difficult to get my pieces into the position.} 22. Bxh5 Qh8 (22… Nxh5 23. Qg5+ Kf8 (23… Kh8 24. Qxh5 Qg8 25. Rg4 Qf8 26. Re3 e5 27. dxe6 (27. Rh3 f5 28. Rg5) 27… fxe6 28. Rxe6) 24. Qxh5 {looks awful for black}) 23. Bd1 {This was to deter black from swinging the a-rook to g8, and to remove the bishop from the h-file} Kf8 24. Qd3 {I was a bit short of a plan here, so I made room for my e1 rook to move up the board. I’m not sure this is the best square for my queen, and I was looking at f4 and d2 as alternatives.} Ng8 {This seemed strange to me. I suppose it defends e7 and h6, but the king side looks bad.} 25. Re3 {Just developing. A concrete plan of action hadn’t really appeared to me yet.} a3 26. b3 {Again I wasn’t sure if this was best. Just taking the pawn, or playing b4 came into consideration. I suppose I wanted to keep the queen side as closed as possible as I want to play on the king side.} Rac8 {This wasn’t the best move as it allowed me to develop with tempo.} 27. Bg4 Rb8 28. Bf5 {This attacks h7, but I was also thinking of the defensive power of the bishop as it covers b1, a possible entry square for a rook after b5 and an exchange on c4.} h6 29. Rg3 Nf6 30. Qd2 b6 {Black is stifling white all the time and is just hanging on. This move covers a5 where the white queen might have moved to.}

31. Rh4 {So at last I began to see the makings of some concrete ideas. The first of these is to create as much stress as possible on black’s king defence, and in particular the h-pawn.} h5 32. Bd3 (32. Bc2 {has the same idea of transferring the white bishop to the e1-h5 diagonal}) 32… Rc5  (32… b5 {straight away was preferable}) 33. Be2 b5 34. b4 {After this zwischenzug, black’s position falls apart. Black loses at least one pawn on the queenside, while all the king side pressure remains.} Rc7 35. cxb5 Rbc8 {Too late}

36. b6 Rc1+ (36… Rc2 37. b7) 37. Kh2 Nd7 (37… Ng4+ 38. Rgxg4) 38. Rxh5 Qa1

39. Qh6+ Ke8 40. Qh8+ Nf8 (40… Qxh8 41. Rxh8+ Nf8 42. Bb5+ Kd8 43. Rxf8#) 41. Bb5+ {mate can only be stopped by sacrificing everyting.} 1-0