As a beginning/intermediate player I have come up against the Dragon Sicilian in
many encounters and decided that I needed to find a way to tackle it. At first I
looked at the Yugoslav Attack, but realized that against a Dragoneer who knew not
to let me open the h-file I was hard pressed to find a devastating attack. About
3 months ago I came across the Levenfish variation and have found that I am able
to use it to effect against those same Dragoneers with whom the Yugoslav failed.
The Levenfish turns the board into a minefield of tactical traps along with chances
to sacrifice material for an overwhelming attack like you will see in my game. If
someone is playing the Dragon and is unprepared to meet this attack he should think
twice.
Sicilian Levenfish Variation
1.
e4
c5 2.
Nf3
d6 3.
d4
cxd4 4.
Nxd4
Nf6 5.
Nc3
g6 6.
f4 This is the Levenfish variation of the Sicilian Dragon. After the
exchange of pawns 7...dxe5
8.fxe5
and then 8...Nd7
black can equalize, but white has the pawn sac with 9.e6
(or 9.e6
fxe6 10.Nxe6
recapturing the pawn right away) to make the game board a dangerous place for the
Black king that will be trapped in the middle and black needs to play accurately
to stop white from building an attack. Playing 6...Nc6
or 6...Nd7
to stop the e5 pawn push is usually played to keep the board in a more familiar
position to the Dragon Sicilian.
6...
Bg7 7.
e5
dxe5 8.
fxe5
Nd5? This move causes black to lose his ability to castle. 8...Nd7
is the only good move here, but black needs to be able to deal with 9.e6
(8...Ng4
drops the knight to 9.Bb5+
8...Nh5
9.g4)
9.
Bb5+
Kf8 Any other move loses badly. 9...Bd7
or 9...Nd7
drop the knight to 10.Nxd5
while 9...Nc6
loses to 10.Nxc6
with an attack on the queen, the knight on d5 and indirectly on the rook on a8 which
stops black from recapturing with 10...bxc6
11.Bxc6+.
10.Qf3
The book move that I found here is
0-0 but I was really attached to my pawn on e5 because of the pressure that
it could possibly put on e6. (I was scared to sacrifice this pawn, because this
game was played as part of my high school tournament and I didn’t want to lose for
my team, this being said the sacrifices I made later in the game seem very ironic)
I wanted to force black to make a move with his knight or to protect his knight
while I used the tempo that I gained to show how I could flex my power on the f-file.
After playing 10.0-0
white needs to be able to deal with 10...Bxe5
(ex. 10.0-0
Bxe5 11.Nxd5
Qxd5 12.Bh6+
Bg7? 13.Bc4
with a nice attack. Black can not play 13...Qxc4
or else 14.Ne6+
with 15.Qd8#)
10...
Nxc3 11.
0-0!? Right here I feel like I lost the tempo if I had recaptured the
knight. I felt this built my before mentioned flex on the f-file. This move also
hangs my knight on d4 while giving my opponent a check to my king which I was hoping
he would see and take. 11...
Qxd4+!? 12.
Be3 In conversation with my opponent after the game he said "I just
figured that my check was faster than checkmate." After he captured my knight as
I had hoped he would his only variation to maintain at least equality is 12...Qxe3+
13.Qxe3
Nxb5 14.Qb3
where black will have 3 minor pieces for a queen. I still feel like my development
might help me retain a small advantage, but I was scared of this move during the
game. His greed was his downfall by trying to hold on to his two knight advantage.
12...
Qd5? This move looks like it protects the mate threat while retaining
a large material advantage until I played my next move.
13.
Rad1!! This move adds a second mate threat on d8 to the already potent
one on f7. Blacks problem after this move is that his lack of development is now
being thrown right in his face, while whites development is superb. Whites pieces
are all developed to their maximum squares with rooks on the open files, bishops
on open, useful diagonals, and his queen has a rook behind it aiming at the black
king along with being on the f3-b7 semi-open diagonal which cuts through the black
queen. Black on the other hand has an entirely undeveloped queenside and a confused
kingside. His one nicely positioned piece, his queen, is so overworked defending
mate threats that it cant even move. And even with his two knight advantage his
clumsy position makes him utterly lost. 13...
Qxd1?? In all desperation he loses instantly to 14.Qxf7#
but his other moves weren’t really helpful at all either. I include a lot of annotation
next on every playable line, but it is important to see why black must lose here.
13...Be6
puts up much more of a resistance and is really his only move. 13...Be6
14.Bc4
Still hitting home the fact that his awkward but forced move of 9...Kf8
gives his king no protection on the back rank. (Not 14.Rxd5
where he will have a material advantage over me and a way to defend my mate threats)
Black has three choices here: 14...Nxd1,
14...Qxd1,
and
Qa5 so I will show all fully annotated.
14...Nxd1
15.Bxd5
Bxd5 (15...Nxe3
16.Bxe6
Nf5 17.Bxf5
(17.Qxb7
fxe6 with both threats of
Qxa8 and
g4) 17...Nc6
18.Bxg6
f6 19.Bh5
looking at either 20.Qb3 or 20.Qd5 and mate at f7) 16.Qxd5
f6 17.exf6
Bxf6 (17...exf6
18.Bc5+
Ke8 19.Re1+
with mate; 17...Nxe3
18.fxe7+
Kxe7 19.Rf7+
Ke8 20.Qe6+
with mate) 18.Bh6+
Ke8 19.Qxb7
with a big plus for white.
14...Qxd1
15.Rxd1
Nxd1 16.Bxe6
f6 (16...Ke8
17.Bxf7+
Kd8 (17...Kf8
18.Bxg6+
with mate; 17...Kd7
18.Qxb7+
Kd8 19.Qxa8
with a massive plus for white.) 18.Qxb7
Nxe3 19.Qxa8
Kc8
(19...Kd7
20.Qxa7+
Kc6 21.Qxe3)
20.Be6+
Kc7 21.Qxa7+
Kc6 22.Qxe3)
17.Qxd1
Nc6 18.exf6
exf6 (18...Bxf6
19.Bh6+
Bg7 (19...Ke8
20.Qd7#)
20.Qf3+
Ke8 21.Bxg7)
19.Bc5+
Ne7 20.Qd6
Re8 21.Bd7
with white having an advantage.
Third and finally, the worst of the 3 options 14...Qa5
15.Bxe6
(Either
f6 or
f5) 16.Qxb7
and mate happens because of the weak back rank.
14.
Qxf7# 1-0
The games like the one I played in my High School match are rare now because white
gains such a great game that black plays 6...Nc6
or 6...Nd7
as in this Grandmaster game:
Averbahk vs. Lisitsin (1948)
1.
e4
c5 2.
Nf3
d6 3.
d4
cxd4 4.
Nxd4
Nf6 5.
Nc3
g6 6.
f4
Nc6 This is played to prevent an immediate e5 push, but is not foolproof
and e5 is still usually played after exchanging a pair of Knights.
7.
Nxc6
bxc6 8.
e5
Nd7 The d6 pawn is pinned to black's queen.
9.
Bc4
Nb6 10.
Qd4 Both protecting the Bishop and threatening exd6 which would leave
blacks rook attacked. 10...
Bg7 11.
0-0
0-0 Right here the opening is over and the game is in play but the
end of the game is quite interesting so I will include the whole game for reference.
12.
Bb3
Ba6 13.
Re1
c5 14.
Qe3
c4 15.
Ba4
Nxa4 16.
Nxa4
Qd7 17.
Nc3
Rad8 18.
Qf2
Bb7 19.
exd6
Qxd6 20.
Be3
Qc6
Building a Queen-Bishop battery aimed at g2. 21.
Bxa7
Rd4 Which can't be taken (22.Bxd4
Bxd4 and the queen in lost because after 23.Qxd4
Qxg2#) 22.
Re2
Rfd8 23.
Kh1 Breaking the pin. 23...
R4d7 24.
Be3
Ba8 25.
Rae1
Qb7 26.
Bc1
Bxc3 27.
bxc3
Qb1 28.
Be3
Qxa2 29.
Bd4
Don’t underestimate this move it grabs the diagonal that cuts right across
the king! 29...
Qa3 30.
f5
Qd6 31.
fxg6
hxg6 32.
Qh4
f6 33.
Re6
Qd5 34.
Qf2
Rb8 35.
h3
Qf5 36.
Qg3
Rb2 37.
Rxe7
Rxe7 38.
Rxe7
Bd5
39.
Qe3 1-0
In conclusion the Levenfish can help you to slay the dragon who is not prepared
to meet it and the plus is that there is not a lot of theory to it, because it is
mostly made up of tactics. This allows players to play it with minimum study. If
you went through my annotation closely you should be ready to start trying out this
fascinating line. Good luck!