Like the Velimirovic book, this work by the Scottish Fide Master is very much a labor of love, as he pays homage to a long list of heroes who played the Dragon. The present volume, the first of a projected two-part series, covers the period from 1850-1976 through 73 well annotated games which includes the forgotten game Fischer-Munoz Leipzig 1960, likely the last time Bobby lost to a FIDE untitled player and to the Dragon. Curiously, Fischer came out of the opening and early middlegame with a clear advantage but then lost his way. In this game, the Ecuadorean master put his queen on e5, a maneuver Bobby subsequently became fond of (Larsen-Fischer 1971 from game two of their Candidates Match is probably the best-known example). Other classic Dragon games in this volume put under the microscope include Rauzer-Botvinnik, Leningrad 1933 (…e5 and …d5!) and Karpov-Korchnoi from their 1974 Candidates Final.
IM John Donaldson
DragonMasters volume 1 charts the history of the most exiting and dangerous opening known to chess – the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defense.
Unlike almost all other books on the Dragon, the focus is not purely on theoretical development. Instead, the author has combined the mist historically important games, the famous players who chose to fight either side (sometimes both sides!) of the opening, and the moist unexpected and interesting stories featuring the Dragon.
World Champions, contenders of the crown, code-breakers, revolutionaries in every sense of the world – all feature in this remarkable and entirely unique look into the history of an opening variation. as the ancient may say: Here be Dragons!
