MARK RUBERY CHESS

One of the most dangerous lines of the Sicilian is the Dragon Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6) which can lead to extremely sharp and heavily analysed positions. At the highest level Kasparov used it successfully as a surprise weapon in his 1995 World Championship match with Anand.

The name “Dragon” was first coined by Russian chess master and amateur astronomer Fyodor Dus-chotimirsky who noted the resemblance of Black’s kingside pawn structure to the constellation Draco.

The following game is from the penultimate round of the 2011 SA Closed (that saw Kobese and Steel share the title with an impressive 9/11), and is a spectacular demonstration of the perils linked to this aggressive variation.

Kobese,watu (2329) - Van den Heever,donovan (2281) [B77]

RSA-CH45 Cape Town (10), 2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3

(The Yugoslav Attack is still the most critical test)…0–0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.Bb3 Na5 (10…Rc8 11 h4 Ne5 with ideas of sacrificing the exchange on c3 followed by…qa5 is the usual Dragon counter play while the text seems less flexible) 11.h4 Rc8? (11…h5 had to be played to avoid the carnage that follows) 12.h5 Nxh5 13.g4 Nf6 14.Bh6 Bxh6 15.Qxh6 e6 (Black is already without a decent defence although our silicon friends contemplate the likes of 15… Nxb3 16 Nd5 Qa5+ 17 c3 Qxd5 which should not suffice either) 16.g5! Nh5 17.Rxh5! gxh5 18.Nf5! …exf5 19.Nd5! (19 g6 allows…qh4+)…kh8 20.Nf6 Qxf6 21.gxf6 Rg8 22.Bxf7 Rg3 23.Kf2 f4 24.Qxf4 1–0

For the most part, Barbara went unnoticed by her classmates at Erasmus Hall. Most of those who did notice her remembered only a cold, aloof loner. “I was this absolute misfit” she later conceded “A real outsider.”

Accordingly she did not attend either her junior or senior prom, and was never asked out on a date. There was one boy she had a crush on, however-another loner in the class behind hers, someone who seemed in a world of his own. His name was Bobby Fischer. Everyday she had lunch with Fischer, who wore a hat with earflaps and laughed hysterically as he read ‘Mad’ magazine. Bobby was always much, much farther out there than Barbara, he was just very odd-bizarre really-even then. Already a chess champion, Fischer was indeed “always alone and very peculiar,” Streisand agreed. “But I found him very sexy.”

From a biography on Barbra Streisand ‘Barbra The Way She Is’ (2006)