Tricks, traps, and practical chances aside, Black is objectively equal in the Accelerated Dragon main line with 5. Nc3.

The theoretical challenge is the Maroczy Bind. Black has three main plans:

1) Classical plan with ...Bd7, ...Nxd4, ...Bc6, ...a5, ...Nd7-c5, ...Qb6, ...Rfc8, ...Qd8, etc.

This plan is solid but passive. Unfortunately, with the 5...Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 d6 move-order Black has to deal with 9. f3 (intending Shaw's O-O-O plan) and 9. O-O Bd7 10. h3!, which scores heavily for White.

2) 7...Ng4 8. Qxg4 Nxd4 9. Qd1 e5: riskier than the plan above, Black fixes the knight in the center and strives for active pawn breaks. But after a simple continuation like 10. Bd3 O-O 11. O-O d6 12. Qd2 Be6 13. Rac1 a6 14. b3 White has the more pleasant position, and will challenge the knight with Rfd1 and Ne2.

3) Gurgenidze System with 5...Nf6 6. Nc3 d6, delaying the development of the bishop. Most precise is 7. f3! Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 O-O 10. Qd2. Now:

10...a5 intending to expand on the queenside with ...a4 and ...Qa5 is the modern interpretation, but 11. b3 is just += in this move-order (i.e. Caruana - Carlsen 2014). 

10...Be6 is the usual plan. Now 11. Rc1 Qa5 12. b3 Rfc8 13. Be2 a6 transposes to a well-known theoretical position. White has an additional option with 13. Bd3 in this move order, but IMO it isn't very impressive.

Old theory continues 14. Na4 Qxd2+ 15. Kxd2 Nd7 16. g4 f5 17. exf5 gxf5 18. h3 Rf8 19. f4 Rad8 (19...d5!?) 20. Nc3 (20. g5!?) d5 21. cxd5 Nf6 (21...Bxd5!?) 22. Bb6 (22. Rhg1!?) when Black can continue with 22...Rd6 or 22...Nxd5. 

I've reached the position at move 20 several times in OTB play at the expert/master level. I'm not exactly sure what the evaluation of this endgame is nowadays, but I think Black is generally fighting for a draw from a slightly worse position.

At lower levels, the Accelerated Dragon has served me well, and it probably will continue to be popular. But at higher levels the Maroczy Bind is so strong that I just switched to playing the White side instead! 

Stigma wrote on 01/05/21 at 19:42:28:


Ah cool. Is there some overlap in how they treat the Maroczy? I saw that James Canty (National Master on Youtube) plays with the move order Nf6 before Bg7 and then later Qa5 with the a6-b5 plan. But I also see Bg7 first in some places. Is one of the courses/books more newbie friendly in the Maroczy?

Try this thread:
New accelerated Dragon books
https://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1552746098

Stigma wrote on 01/05/21 at 13:58:31:

I'm reminded of Silman & Donaldson's 1980s Chess Life article advocating the AD (p. 24 at the link) ...
http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL-AND-CR-ALL/CL-ALL/1986/1986_05.pdf

...and this bit from the back cover of their 1990s AD book:  "The Accelerated Dragon is the perfect weapon for the competitive player.  It is full of traps yet positionally well-founded."   

Its also really very difficult for white to try - with any degree of soundness, anyway - and hack the accelerated dragon.

I don't think the AD being recommended by many coaches is a recent phenomenon at all. Nor is it hard to understand.

I have both played and recommended it myself. It helps that it's low-theory, but even more important on scholastic and club level is how easy it is for White to go wrong early on. There are a number of pitfalls based on ...Nxe4 tactics if White isn't careful with the move order, and White can also get into a tempo down situations if he tries to go for a straight Yugoslav attack, when Black gets to play ...d5 in one move instead of two. (I've even heard clueless club players argue that Black must have done something wrong in that scenario, since "you're supposed to play ...d6 in the Dragon"...)

Moving on to to the Maroczy Bind, it is full of strategic dangers for the unwary club player, who is quite likely to end up in some sort of bad light-squared bishop scenario as White if he hasn't taken the time to master this imbalance or learn the theory. And while there are positions there with many piece exchanges, they tend to still be more imbalanced than many Petroff positions, meaning on club level it's still possible to play for a win.

So it's an easy opening to learn with lots of traps for the unwary opponent - perfect for getting good results while moving up the rating ladder. But at the same time it's not just a trappy opening that will need to be discarded - it has a pedigree and is serious enough that it's possible to keep the AD in one's repertoire all the way up to GM level. So it's a "twofer" in that regard.

Btw. Silman had an article online on why the Accelerated Dragon was the perfect defence for blitz, with a lot of the same arguments I used here. I would be surprised if it's still available, but I haven't checked.

Hi.

I dunno. Don't these coaches themselves give reasons?

Normally I would think the Accelerated Dragon would lead to more positional imbalances compared to e4 e5.

Have a nice day.