The Complete Dragon [Paperback]

Eduard Gufeld (Author), Oleg Stetsko (Author), Graham Burgess (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Intl Chess Enterprises (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187947963X
• ISBN-13: 978-1879479630
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Afraid of Yugoslav? With This Book, Be Afraid No More!, January 20, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Dragon (Paperback)

I used to play the Accelerated Dragon to avoid the dangerous Yugoslav attack. After I studied this book, I now play the standard Dragon to LURE my opponents to play the Yugoslav, and I have more success now. The secret is that the Yugoslav vs the Dragon battle will most probably decided in favor of the player who has studied more lines. With this book, you always have the edge.

GM John Nunn, in his book 'Secrets of Practical Chess', enumerated how to study a chess opening book efficiently: play over the illustrative games first and then look at just the main lines - that will cope 90% of your games. 'The Complete Dragon' has more than enough illustrative games (which includes several Anand-Kasparov championship match where Kasparov used the Dragon), and it starts with the Yugoslav main line.

If you want to win more games with the black pieces, this book is for you. This book is of course also useful if you want to beat the Dragon.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars *Only* about the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Def, June 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Dragon (Paperback)

Let me start by explain my rating of this book. If you are looking for a book specifically on the Dragon, you probably won't find a better one and this one is five stars. As a general Chess book, this book is pretty awful and would rate one star - maybe two since it covers what is proposes to so well. Given that anyone who purchases a general chess book with the title "The Complete Dragon" didn't bother to do *any* homework, I give this book 4 stars. To show the scope of this book, let me quote the introduction: "... decided to limit our coverage to just the 'real' Dragon, 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 ... and not deal with the so-called Accelerated Dragon (2 ... Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 g6)." What follows is a 348 page discussion on the "Yugoslav Attack..., classical variations..., modern variations... and... a misc group of less common continuations." So, given that: 1) you find yourself playing black and 2) have played the first five moves of the Dragon and 3) you're within 100 points of your opponent and 4) the two of you aren't within 200 points of Eduard Gufeld and 5) you've pretty much memorized 348 pages: you can reasonably expect to mop the board with your opponent. "Look into the eyes of the Dragon and dispair." Though I don't believe this was Gufeld's intention. He does a truly *excellent* job with his material. Even if you don't memorize the variations, as a previous reviewer says s/he has (a monster task to be sure), following the development and understanding the logic behind it is enlightening - whether you play white or black. I would have to say this book is written for"terminally chess curious," "serious club" players and above. "Casual coffee house" players and those under, say, 1500 should probably stick with Seirawan's "Winning Chess" series published by MS Press, My System by Nimzovich or The Mammoth Book of Chess.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to be a Dragon Slayer? Get this book!, January 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Dragon (Paperback)

Most books out there that cover the Dragon put all the hype and emphasis strictly on the Yugoslav Attack, and cover maybe 10 pages total on other lines. Why go down the beaten path? All you are doing is playing into Black's hand. This book, while still having a good chunk of coverage on the Yugoslav for those "Bandwagon" players (roughly 175 pages out of about 275 on Analysis prior to the 78 games), there is actually about 100 pages worth of analysis on lines such as the Classical, Levenfish (my weapon), and a few other lines that are occasionally played. None of these are unsound lines where White is lost if Black is aware of the trap, they just aren't played as often, and therefore most players as Black aren't quite as prepared, as they expect a Yugoslav as soon as White commits to playing the Open Sicilian. Since reading over the Classical and Levenfish lines (and choosing to go with the Levenfish, primarily out of taste, Classical may get another visit by me), the Dragon has become the least of my problems, and would become the least of yours too! Dragons can't beat Dragon Slayers!