Accelerated Dragon

What this accelerated dragon page does

This free opening explorer lists the named lines of the Accelerated Dragon, a Sicilian Defence system, and plays any selected line on a board. It runs in your web browser, needs no sign-up, and uploads nothing.

The catalogue behind it holds about 3,800 named opening lines. The page filters that list down to the Accelerated Dragon, so you can see every named version of the line, including the Maróczy Bind branches that White can reach after 5. c4. Each move on the board is checked by the chess rules before it appears, so the lines you see are legal.

The explorer shows named lines and positions only. It does not give engine evaluations, win percentages, master games or statistics. Use it to learn the move order, compare variations and then practise them in the opening trainer.

How to use the Accelerated Dragon explorer

1. The page opens on the main line with all its moves already played. To start again, press ⏮ to return to the first position.
2. Press ▶ to play the next move and ◀ to go back one move. Press ⏭ to jump to the last move of the line.
3. Press Auto-play to advance one move about every 1.1 seconds. The button changes to Pause, so press it again to stop.
4. Press Flip board to view the position from the other side, which helps when you are playing Black.
5. Read the line under the buttons. It shows the moves played so far and, when the catalogue knows the position, its name and ECO code.
6. In the Lines list, each row shows the ECO code, the name and the moves. Click a row to play that line on the board.
7. In Moves of the selected line, click any move to jump straight to that position.
8. Click "Practise this line in the opening trainer" below that list to open the trainer on the same line.

The address bar keeps the line you chose (the ?l= part of the address), so you can bookmark a line or send the link to a friend, and it will open on the same line.

Questions and answers

What are the moves of the Accelerated Dragon?

The base line is 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6. Black then plays ...Bg7 to develop the bishop to the long diagonal. The longest named line in the catalogue has 14 half-moves, running through 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 d6 in the Gurgenidze Variation.

What is the ECO code of the Accelerated Dragon?

The base position after 4...g6 is coded B32 in the catalogue, under the name "Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon". The named lines run from B32 to B39, and one further line sits under B54 when Black plays ...d6 early.

Does the tool show which side is winning?

No. The tool does not show engine evaluations, win percentages, master games or statistics. It only lists named lines and shows the named positions on the board.

How many named lines does the catalogue hold for this opening?

The catalogue has 11 named lines for this opening: B32, B34, B35, B36, B37, B38, B39, and one line under B54 reached by 2...d6.

Why does a position show the same name after different move orders?

The catalogue names a position by its pieces, not by the order of moves. Two move orders that reach the same position therefore show the same name and ECO code.

Related chess tools

• Chess opening trainer — practise a line move by move against the opening you are learning.
• Chess opening finder — search for an opening when you know a few moves but not its name.
• ECO codes — look up what each ECO letter and number covers.
• Random chess opening generator — pick an unfamiliar opening to study next.
• Chess notation — learn the symbols used to write moves such as Nxd4 and cxd4.
• PGN viewer — step through a game recorded in PGN format.
• Chess cheat sheet — check the rules and piece moves quickly while you study.
• Chess puzzles — test tactics that come up in the middlegames of Sicilian positions.

Open-source components used by this tool: chess.js (BSD-2-Clause); chess-openings catalogue (CC0-1.0).