The Complete Dragon

Rating:
Summary: A very professional learning material
Review: First, let me present a shocking fact: GM Anatoly Kárpov has played almost 30 games after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6, all of them on the white side. The result is awful for black: +1-25=3. 25 against 1!! Only GM V. Korchnoi could defeat with the black pieces the former world champion in 1978. All of this contributed to a "bad fame" for the Dragon Variation between my generation. Only the patient practical and theoretical work of GM Eduard Gufeld and some british GMs (and recently GM Fedorov)has sustained this line at the top level of competition in the last 30 years. And they won!! This book is a real synteshis of a life-span work and the still unfinished figth of a real hero. I had first readed the Dragon Variation article in Gufeld's "In search of Mona Lisa", after what I wanted a lot to read this book. And I havent's been dissapointed! The balance between memory learning and logical learning is almost perfect. I'm sure that many people will lost any fear to play the Dragon Variation after reading this handbook.

On the weaken side, I think Gufeld pass very fastly over some important variations. For example, the game after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O d5 10. Nxc6 bc 11. Bd4 e5 12. Bc5 Be6 13. Bc4!?, where the move 13. ... Qh4 is not mentioned. Even the move 13. ... Nxc3 could been more extensive analyzed. Regrettably, the line 10. Kb1 Nxd4 11. e5 Nf5 wasn't developed at the time this book was published, but I wondered to know the author's opinion on it. It's desirable too a future Gufeld's book on the Accelerated Dragon.

Let's read, let's play!

Rating:
Summary: A very professional learning material
Review: First, let me present a shocking fact: GM Anatoly Kárpov has played almost 30 games after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6, all of them on the white side. The result is awful for black: +1-25=3. 25 against 1!! Only GM V. Korchnoi could defeat with the black pieces the former world champion in 1978. All of this contributed to a "bad fame" for the Dragon Variation between my generation. Only the patient practical and theoretical work of GM Eduard Gufeld and some british GMs (and recently GM Fedorov)has sustained this line at the top level of competition in the last 30 years. And they won!! This book is a real synteshis of a life-span work and the still unfinished figth of a real hero. I had first readed the Dragon Variation article in Gufeld's "In search of Mona Lisa", after what I wanted a lot to read this book. And I havent's been dissapointed! The balance between memory learning and logical learning is almost perfect. I'm sure that many people will lost any fear to play the Dragon Variation after reading this handbook.

On the weaken side, I think Gufeld pass very fastly over some important variations. For example, the game after 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O d5 10. Nxc6 bc 11. Bd4 e5 12. Bc5 Be6 13. Bc4!?, where the move 13. ... Qh4 is not mentioned. Even the move 13. ... Nxc3 could been more extensive analyzed. Regrettably, the line 10. Kb1 Nxd4 11. e5 Nf5 wasn't developed at the time this book was published, but I wondered to know the author's opinion on it. It's desirable too a future Gufeld's book on the Accelerated Dragon.

Let's read, let's play!

Rating:
Summary: Afraid of Yugoslav? With This Book, Be Afraid No More!
Review: I used to play the Accelerated Dragon to avoid the dangerous Yugoslav attack. After I studied this book, I now play the standard Dragon to LURE my opponents to play the Yugoslav, and I have more success now. The secret is that the Yugoslav vs the Dragon battle will most probably decided in favor of the player who has studied more lines. With this book, you always have the edge.

GM John Nunn, in his book 'Secrets of Practical Chess', enumerated how to study a chess opening book efficiently: play over the illustrative games first and then look at just the main lines - that will cope 90% of your games. 'The Complete Dragon' has more than enough illustrative games (which includes several Anand-Kasparov championship match where Kasparov used the Dragon), and it starts with the Yugoslav main line.

If you want to win more games with the black pieces, this book is for you. This book is of course also useful if you want to beat the Dragon.

Rating:
Summary: *Only* about the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Def
Review: I win many games as black because of this book. It has a great deal of information, i.e., I have variations memorized up to 26 moves deep. The book is well organized in the tree format and is not difficult to get through. All e4 and e4 c5 players should own this book.

Rating:
Summary: best existing book on the dragon
Review: I win many games as black because of this book. It has a great deal of information, i.e., I have variations memorized up to 26 moves deep. The book is well organized in the tree format and is not difficult to get through. All e4 and e4 c5 players should own this book.

Rating:
Summary: A cool book on the Dragon
Review: I'm really surprised that Gufeld can still do such high quality work. Sometimes he misses the boat (where's Mayer? If Gufeld can't address him, why's he writing on this topic?) but still a very comprehensive intro to the Dragon by a GM who *earned* his reputation as a hack _years_ ago. The editor/translator works over time plugging gaps in Gufeld's 2nd rate research skills; that helps. So, I give this book a 7...not bad, but laziness and ignorance don't earn "9"s and "10's from this reviewer. Hint, Eddie: keep up with the literature and buy yourself ChessBase and the "million games" of data if you still want to flail around doing this kind of work. Otherwise, your claims to fame as a 2nd-rate GM and lazy writer won't put much more bread on the table...

Rating:
Summary: A cool book on the Dragon
Review: I'm really surprised that Gufeld can still do such high quality work. Sometimes he misses the boat (where's Mayer? If Gufeld can't address him, why's he writing on this topic?) but still a very comprehensive intro to the Dragon by a GM who *earned* his reputation as a hack _years_ ago. The editor/translator works over time plugging gaps in Gufeld's 2nd rate research skills; that helps. So, I give this book a 7...not bad, but laziness and ignorance don't earn "9"s and "10's from this reviewer. Hint, Eddie: keep up with the literature and buy yourself ChessBase and the "million games" of data if you still want to flail around doing this kind of work. Otherwise, your claims to fame as a 2nd-rate GM and lazy writer won't put much more bread on the table...

Rating:
Summary: The Complete Waste...
Review: Id have to say a better name for this book might be The Complete Waste... I remember when I first got this book I thought wow Ill just play this as my system and be set... Yet as I got into the reality of play I realised just how many gaps were really in this book... Besides the fact many games you cant even setup the Dragon they give you nothing but the pure dragon... They dont even talk about the Accelerated Dragon at all in the least... Too many people play Sicilian Lines anyways to be honest... If your reading this thinking of picking it up dont really waste your time... I find it best to not play sicilian and to just plain avoid it as white... No reason to enter a game vs. someone thats all booked up with no life... Many Sicilian players do not know how to play chess and simply resort to memorizing lines and variations... They seem like better players than they are cuz of so much coverage of opening... They spend so much time learning and studying over line after line just to get a false inflated rating... Bout only good thing about this book is its sorta shiny and reflects the light funky :).... If you have money to waste on a chess book you can find lots better...

Rating:
Summary: *Only* about the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Def
Review: Let me start by explain my rating of this book. If you are looking for a book specifically on the Dragon, you probably won't find a better one and this one is five stars. As a general Chess book, this book is pretty awful and would rate one star - maybe two since it covers what is proposes to so well. Given that anyone who purchases a general chess book with the title "The Complete Dragon" didn't bother to do *any* homework, I give this book 4 stars. To show the scope of this book, let me quote the introduction: "... decided to limit our coverage to just the 'real' Dragon, 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 ... and not deal with the so-called Accelerated Dragon (2 ... Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6)." What follows is a 348 page discussion on the "Yugoslav Attack..., classical variations..., modern variations... and... a misc group of less common continuations." So, given that: 1) you find yourself playing black and 2) have played the first five moves of the Dragon and 3) you're within 100 points of your opponent and 4) the two of you aren't within 200 points of Eduard Gufeld and 5) you've pretty much memorized 348 pages: you can reasonably expect to mop the board with your opponent. "Look into the eyes of the Dragon and dispair." Though I don't believe this was Gufeld's intention. He does a truly *excellent* job with his material. Even if you don't memorize the variations, as a previous reviewer says s/he has (a monster task to be sure), following the development and understanding the logic behind it is enlightening - whether you play white or black. I would have to say this book is written for"terminally chess curious," "serious club" players and above. "Casual coffee house" players and those under, say, 1500 should probably stick with Seirawan's "Winning Chess" series published by MS Press, My System by Nimzovich or The Mammoth Book of Chess.

Rating:
Summary: Want to be a Dragon Slayer? Get this book!
Review: Most books out there that cover the Dragon put all the hype and emphasis strictly on the Yugoslav Attack, and cover maybe 10 pages total on other lines. Why go down the beaten path? All you are doing is playing into Black's hand. This book, while still having a good chunk of coverage on the Yugoslav for those "Bandwagon" players (roughly 175 pages out of about 275 on Analysis prior to the 78 games), there is actually about 100 pages worth of analysis on lines such as the Classical, Levenfish (my weapon), and a few other lines that are occasionally played. None of these are unsound lines where White is lost if Black is aware of the trap, they just aren't played as often, and therefore most players as Black aren't quite as prepared, as they expect a Yugoslav as soon as White commits to playing the Open Sicilian. Since reading over the Classical and Levenfish lines (and choosing to go with the Levenfish, primarily out of taste, Classical may get another visit by me), the Dragon has become the least of my problems, and would become the least of yours too! Dragons can't beat Dragon Slayers!