Sicilian Dragon
AdvancedBlack's sharpest answer to 1.e4. Black puts the bishop on g7 — the famous "Dragon bishop" — aiming down the long diagonal at White's queenside, and attacks there. Usually the kings castle on opposite sides and the rook crashes in with ...Rxc3. The catch: Black gives up the centre and the attack is slow to set up, so it becomes a race — and White's kingside pawn storm can get there first. It's the cousin of the King's Indian — the same g7-bishop counterattack, just against 1.e4 instead of 1.d4. Easy rule: play the Dragon against 1.e4, the King's Indian against 1.d4.
Key Strategic Ideas
Before diving into the Yugoslav Attack and other specific lines, we look at the 6 core Black ideas that underpin every Dragon variation. The Dragon shares its hypermodern soul with the King's Indian — fianchetto the bishop, let White over-build, then strike — but the strike is sharper, because the c-file opens almost immediately.