Chess Openings: Sicilian Dragon, Levenfish Variation (6. F4)

The Sicilian Dragon is an opening I've played for many years with good results. It's my main weapon against 1. e4 and leads to very sharp positions in the main lines. A sideline that seems to be very popular with beginner and intermediate players is the Levenfish Variation, which starts off with 1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nf6, 5. Nc3 g6, 6. f4.

White's f2-f4 push has a lot of ideas. First, white simply threatens e4-e5, then if Nfd7, he can even play e5-e6. White can also hold back with moves like Be3, Be2, Qd2, and 0-0, then try to break through with f4-f5. The threat of e4-e5 is fairly strong, but not strong enough. As it turns out, black can equalize with correct play. Since e4-e5 is white's threat, black has two moves that both develop and protect the e5 square that we should consider: Nbd7 and Nc6.

The move Nbd7 looks nice, and it seems like black's position is pretty well held down. The problem with Nbd7 is that now the knight on d7 is tied down to the e5-square, and as a result, it can never move (or white gets in e4-e5). On d7, the knight will block black's light-squared bishop from developing, and it obstructs black's other knight from ever coming to d7. Overall, having the queen's knight move to d7 immediately is too passive of a move.

So now we have to ask ourselves about Nc6. It looks like white could stir some trouble with Nxc6 followed by e4-e5, or by playing Bb5 and piling up on the c6 point. We'll have to examine each of these possibilities closely to make sure that Nc6 isn't a huge error.

If after 6. ... Nc6, white plays Bb5, we obviously have to protect the c6 knight. So, 7. Bb5 Bd7 and maybe white can take the knight and work in e4-e5, so let's look at that. If white tries 8. Bxc6 Bxc6, 9. e5 then black has the very strong Ne4. Material will trade off, and black will have equalized. Some other possible moves after Bd7 don't work out very well, for example 8. Be3 Ng4 or 8. 0-0 Qb6, 9. Nce2 e5 (or 9. Be3 Ng4), all of which give black huge edges in material.