Alumbrado!

While I am feeling closer to what Wonderer is stating (although I repeat : there are three main lines in the infirmary) I welcommed your participation to increase the level of discussion here!

Funnily, I started playing the Dragon in my last tournament, and, JUST LIKE IN THE KG, my score with it has been excellent (2/2) although there is one gaping hole in the lines I am playing.


Kasparov himself manifested to an Spanish IM on the Madrid tube enroute to watch Real Madrid that the Dragon is fully busted. So my view: another gamble, this time as black


Regards


Fernando

This is a great point about opening repertoire. For many years I worked in IT. Chess was very much just a hobby.

In  correspondence I played mainly fixed openings tournaments. Guess what

1) I scored better as white than black in Elephant Gambit 
tournaments

2) I scored better as black in Blackmar-Diemer Gambit tournaments.

3) I did better as black than white in a morra gambit tournament.

After playing classical sicilian and dragon variants for many years I switched to 1..e5 about eighteen months ago. It has cost me about 150 rating points over the board but my ICCF grading has risen.

I believe that the gambits mentioned in 1) 2) and 3) are much worse than the Kings Gambit in that if the defender knows his theory he can emerge from the opening with an extra pawn, no static weaknesses and positions that are not yukky messes.

I visited Malmö over the weekend, so let me first say that you live in a very beautiful city!

However, I think you are at best over-simplifying.

Black's compensation in the lines where he plays ...Rxc3 in the Dragon, is very concrete - the queenside pawns are weakened and this often also exposes the white king by wekening the dark squares (the removal of the pawn from b2 weakens the defence of the a3 and c3 squares). The c4 square also becomes even more useful as an outpost.  And White ideas with Nc3-d5 are taken out of the equation.  Most of these factors can persist into the endgame as well, incidentally.

Your last comment strikes me as just wrong.  A lot of 1.e4 players over 2000 will either dodge the Dragon altogether, or play one of the quieter lines (6.g3, for example), and I think you can certainly get to 2000+ without knowing much at all about the Yugoslav Attack!

By contrast, I would be slightly surprised if anybody above 2000 played 1...e5 without at least having something in mind against the King's Gambit!

Personally, I think the KG-Dragon comparison is not a very good one.  The KG is much riskier than the Dragon (which after all has been played in a number of top level games over the years, including the Anand-Kasparov WC match) - it sacs a pawn for rather vague compensation - but the point is that W can get away with slightly riskier openings, because of the advantage of the first move.
I think a better comparison is with something like the Elephant Gambit or maybe the von Hennig-Schara Gambit.  Both of these have their points, but if white know what he is doing, he will probably end up with at least a slight advantage.

Regarding the Kings Gambit vs Dragon viability debate, I will repeat what I told Wonderer in another thread.   

To play a risky Opening as black is one thing, but to rely on a risky Opening for white as your main weapon is just plain foolhardy.

Black if he wants to win against good opposition must be prepared to take some risk, with white such extreme measures are often unnecessary.

A further point to be made is that players who have repertoires made up of by and large unsound openings can expect the occassional 'brilliancy' that comes with specialisation. However as a whole I have noticed  how inconsistent the tournament results are with players of this ilk. Consequently half of their chess playing life is occupied with trying to repair lines that are fundamentally flawed in the first place, by the time they come to this realisation the damage has already been done, and for many it is too late to change.

We all know the type of player that I speak of, they fall into the Smith Morra, Latvian and Elephant Gambit category. Don't let that be you!     

Let me also state that while I luv the Dragon it is not my only defence to 1.e4, and when in a more placid mood I prefer 1...e5 which in my opinion is the soundest answer to 1e4. 

The overall impression I get from this thread is that most of u depend on the Kings Gambit wholly and solely, now trust me on this, if  u aspire to move up and stay up the chess food chain, u better had start looking for another opening or at least a backup.

Don't get me wrong the Kings Gambit is loads of fun to play, especially as a surprise on an unwary opponent. Nevertheless in the cold light of day, as a main weapon for white, one must concede that the negatives far outweigh the positives. 

Make no mistake about it, one of the most valuable assets a chessplayer can have is a sound and reliable repertoire. Without one, u will always find yourself shopping around for new openings.

As always I wish yall the best of luck in your quest to breathe new life into this ancient relic.

Peace n Luv

Top   

Well, TopNotch, in a free world you are free to dislike the KG. But I agree with David Flude, that your criticism is a bit strange from your mouth, as you are so fond of the Dragon. Indeed your remarks highly apply to your favourite opening too. Not that I have something against the Dragon.

I played the dragon of and on for forty years. At least three times ideas were discovered for white which put the dragon back in the closet for years. Talk about the King's gambit being refuted, much worse things have been done to the dragon.

I also have played the full tilt Modern Benoni for many 
years, again the Taimanov Variation drove many players away from the opening. I won every game as white and black in a fixed openings email tournament recently and I 
still am unsure as to which of Watson's lines to play.

If you play sharp openings then you take the risk that a main line may get so badly mauled that you have to switch to a new opening. 

So I suggest to any microboppers reading this column. as white learn the Catalan and as black play the French.
The only risk you take is after thirty or forty years you may be bored to tears.

<There is little Imagination or Originality left in the Kings Gambit>
Look, and you shall find. It is not that hard.