In this book Simon Williams presents a defense to 1.e4 based on what he calls the “Dragadorf”, a Dragon/Najdorf hybrid that has been used by Botvinnik and Reshevsky in the past. Among its current adherents are various British GMs (Chris Ward, Gawain Jones, Williams himself), as well as such free spirits as the American GM Sergey Kudrin. Black will fianchetto his king’s Bishop as in the normal Dragon (and to be clear it should be pointed out that Williams begins his book from the position arising after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6) but he will follow up with a speedy queenside expansion by ...a6 and ...b5.
One promising plan for White is to play a quick Bh6 in response, for example: 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Bc4! Nbd7 9.Qd2 b5 10.Bb3 Bb7 11.Bh6! as in Stein -Veresov, 1963. This is game 2 in the book, with White winning in 42 moves; the punctuation is Williams’ own, by the way. Or White can go 8.Qd2 (instead of 8.Bc4 as played by Stein) Nbd7 9.0-0-0 b5 10.Bh6, a line covered in the whole of chapter 3.
The refinement of delaying the move ...Bf8-g7, thereby saving a tempo should White play Bh6 or indeed making this move innocuous, naturally suggests itself. And Williams covers this possibility, which he christens the Accelerated Dragadorf, in chapter 5. One player who treats the line this way, incidentally, is Kudrin; there are a couple of his games in this chapter, and 3 in the book overall.
Most of the book concerns itself with the Dragadorf versus the Yugoslav plan of 6.Be3 followed by f3 and Qd2, etc. (chapters 1-4), but later chapters (6 and 7) cover the Classical (6.Be2), the Levenfish (6.f4), the Fianchetto (6.g3) and various odds and ends. Against almost all of these latter systems, Williams is able to make the Dragadorf policy of a swift …a6 and …b5 viable and promising. A mosaic of 62 annotated games (4 of them the author’s own) forms the picture; it is all quite comprehensive. All in all, the Dragadorf pretty much holds its own, though it is sorely tested at certain points.
As a writer, Williams’ prose is engaging and conversational, but he can also be rigorous and methodical when needed. He begins each chapter by outlining the plans available to Black and then summarizes the key findings at the end. And naturally there are pointers to correct play in the notes to the games too – all very helpful and useful.
Indeed, I for one cannot really find fault with Williams’ pioneering work. If you are looking for a Sicilian line that is dynamic and fluid yet still offers plenty of scope for independent research and innovation, THE NEW SICILIAN DRAGON is prescribed.
