Chess Codex
Tree path 8 levels King's Pawn Game › Sicilian Defense › Sicilian Defense › Modern Variations › Sicilian Defense › Sicilian Defense › Modern Variations, Main Line › Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation
  1. Chess Codex
  2. King's Pawn Game B00
  3. Sicilian Defense B20
  4. Sicilian Defense B27
  5. Modern Variations B50
  6. Sicilian Defense B50
  7. Sicilian Defense B50
  8. Modern Variations, Main Line B54
  9. Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation B70 you are here
B70

Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation

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Overview

Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation is a variation within the Semi-Open Games family, indexed as ECO B70.

The Semi-Open Games group covers semi-open games — replies to 1.e4 where Black declines the symmetrical 1…e5 in favour of an asymmetric pawn structure.

It begins with 10 plies and takes 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 to reach the canonical position.

It is a variation of Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations, Main Line, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.

It branches into 4 notable variations — Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation, Classical Variation, Fianchetto Variation, and others.

Counted recursively, this branch covers 32 sub-variations at all depths.

Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.

ECO code
B70
Group
Semi-Open Games (B)
Plies
10
Parent
Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations, Main Line
Direct variations
4
Total in subtree
32

This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.

Statistics from Lichess

6,121,612 games · White 46.1% / Draw 5.3% / Black 48.6%

MovesGamesW / D / B
Be32,454,739
Bc4814,619
Bg5670,836
Be2569,179
f3551,317
Bd3284,141
f4267,680
Bb5+177,423

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:14:52

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Variations (4)

Related variations at the same level

Sister lines that share the same parent Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations, Main Line:

Show all 32 sub-variations (full subtree)

https://chesscodex.org/openings/sicilian-defense-dragon-variation