Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation, Yugoslav Attack

The Yugoslav Attack, considered one of the sharpest of all chess openings, is White's most common answer to the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O, usually followed by 8.Qd2 Nc6 and then 9.Bc4 or 9.O-O-O. The players castle on opposite sides and race to attack each other's king.

The idea

The move f3 protects e4 and stops Black from playing ...Ng4 to harass White's dark-squared bishop. Black cannot play 6...Ng4 at once either, because 7.Bb5+ wins material.

White keeps a firm grip on the centre and advances the kingside pawns, often aiming to mate down the h-file, and tries to exchange dark-squared bishops with Be3–h6. Black's play is based on the half-open c-file and the a- and b-pawns. Typical Black themes are exchanging White's light-squared bishop with ...Nc6–e5–c4, sacrificing the exchange on c3 to break up White's queenside pawns, and pressure along the long diagonal. Black can often reach an acceptable endgame even after giving up the exchange.

Main lines

• 9.O-O-O, the old main line, came back after years in which 9.Bc4 was considered best, and it is the dominant move today. The usual reply is 9...d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Bd4. Here 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Qxd5 Qc7 gives Black very strong bishops after 14.Qxa8 Bf5 15.Qxf8+ Kxf8.
• 9.Bc4 stops the freeing move ...d5 and leads to extremely tactical, heavily analysed positions. After 9...Bd7 10.O-O-O Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.h4 h5 Black reaches the Soltis Variation, the main line of the Dragon until the late 1990s. Garry Kasparov used it three times against Viswanathan Anand in the 1995 World Championship, with two wins and a draw. Since then White has often played 12.Kb1, and Black players have answered with 10...Rb8, the Chinese Dragon, or with 11...Nxd4.

History

Anatoly Karpov played the Yugoslav Attack with 10.h4 against Viktor Korchnoi in the 1974 Candidates Final. The Dragon lost popularity in the late 1990s when White revived the old line with 9.O-O-O.

The numbers

On Lichess White wins 49.2% of the 1.6 million games and Black 45.2%. White does much better at lower ratings: 56.9% against 39.4% under 1400. From 2200 up the two sides are almost level, 46.7% against 46.1%. In 7,712 master games over the board White won 41.2%, Black 20.1%, and 38.7% were drawn.