This is the second addition of my "Fire Breathing Dragon!". Part one can be found here. In part one we discussed the advantages of this opening for black which include a compact pawn structure, two center pawns, and a half open c-file.
In this edition I'd like to look at the volatility of the opening for BOTH sides. Observe the position below.
How should white continue? We obviously do not want the black knight to harass the bishop by jumping to g4... so we must push the f3 pawn.
This is a minor quirk from white's perspective. But because the dragon is such a fighting variation, the dark bishop is crucial to white's attack plans because it can later build an outpost on g5 after black plays h5 or swap off black's defender by playing Bh6.
On the other hand, take a look at this position. Hardly a difference, it's simply a few moves earlier in the line.
Harassing a bishop is a favorite past-time of blacks. However, at this point in the dragon making such a move would be fatal! Look out for this position in your own games.
The moral of this story is do not preemptively play Ng4.
But now that we've covered some of the boring stuff, let's watch Kasparov's dragon eat Anand's Yugoslavian (I apologize to any Yugoslavians I may have offended)
Note: No Yugoslavians were actually harmed in the making of this classic game.
Here we have our possible continuations.
This game is a fantastic demonstration of the final point in this post:
Castle early in the dragon!
Thanks for reading!!! Comments are always appreciated!