Biarien's Blog

Just some ramblings and thoughts, mostly for my own amusement and education, but also in the hope that others would enjoy reading what I post here. If you find any of this interesting, useful, or insightful, please feel free to leave a comment.  Or if it's absolute garbage, please feel free to gently let me know. ;)

• The Accelerated Dragon (Part 4)

  The Accelerated Dragon (Part 4) — The Hyperaccelerated Dragon The Hyperaccelerated Dragon describes the position after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6: In hypermodern fashion, black immediately declares his intentions to fianchetto the dark-squared bishop... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Mar 02 2010
  • | 495 views
  • | 0 comments

• The Accelerated Dragon (Part 3)

  The Accelerated Dragon (Part 3) — The Maroczy Bind The Maroczy Bind is the term used to describe the position after white plays 5. c4.  White takes advantage of the fact that his knight has not been forced to c3 to advance the c-pawn, c... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Feb 28 2010
  • | 428 views
  • | 1 comment

• The Accelerated Dragon (Part 2)

  The Accelerated Dragon (Part 2) — A Closer Look at the 5. Nc3 Main Lines In this section, we'll take a look at two of the main lines in the Accelerated Dragon with 5. Nc3.  The 7. Nxc6 Line By playing 7. Nxc6 and 8. e5, white tr... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Feb 25 2010
  • | 572 views
  • | 1 comment

• The Accelerated Dragon (Part 1)

  The Accelerated Dragon (Part 1) — An Introduction to the Accelerated Dragon. This is the starting position of the Accelerated Dragon variation of the immensely popular Sicilian Defense.  The Accelerated Dragon sometimes has a repuation for be... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Feb 22 2010
  • | 819 views
  • | 4 comments

• Attacking with the Queen's Gambit (Part 1)

  The Queen's Gambit is often characterized as a slow, positional (i.e., to some at least, boring) opening.  It is true that white can play a slower, less aggressive game, but this isn't the whole story!  Many openings arising after white's d4+c4 ... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Jan 07 2010
  • | 346 views
  • | 1 comment

• The Dragon's Breath: The Sicilian Dragon (Part 1)

  While considered somewhat risky at top levels, the Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense is nevertheless an interesting opening in its own right, and can provide many opporunities for the black player to fight for a win.  Even though it's far ... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Dec 02 2009
  • | 608 views
  • | 1 comment

• Attack on the Queen's Indian

  For a while, I played the Nimzo-Indian Defense and Queen's Indian Defense as black, but recently have been experimenting with the Grunfeld for a more dynamic game right out of the opening. As white, I prefer to avoid the Nimzo-Indian with 3. Nf3, ... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Nov 20 2009
  • | 407 views
  • | 2 comments

• A Typical Game in the Queen's Gambit

  Typical for me, at least. :\  As white, I enjoy playing the Queen's Gambit (or d4+c4 in response to the Indian defenses, since I suppose those aren't technically called the Queen's Gambit anymore). However, I find that I have a hard time formulat... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Nov 10 2009
  • | 410 views
  • | 0 comments

• My Best Game Yet

  As crazy as it sounds, I've recently tried switching away from the Caro-Kann and taking up the Sicilian Dragon. It's probably hard to do a more complete 180 in the chess world, but my reasoning is that when I played the Caro-Kann, I never felt lik... | Read More

  • Biarien
  • | Oct 30 2009
  • | 459 views
  • | 1 comment