Enter the Hungarian Dragon
A lethal new setup to crush the Yugoslav Attack.
Ever since I was a kid, I was enchanted by the Sicilian Dragon. I don’t know if it was the name or the beautiful simplicity of the setup, but the opening captured my imagination and became my favorite weapon as Black.
Over the years, I’ve developed a deep love for the g7 bishop as my Dragon evolved into the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6) under the influence of my former coach, GM Roman Dzindzichashvili. Dzindzi was a former top 10 player and one of the most renowned theoreticians in the world.
We recommended the HAD in my original book, Chess Openings for Black, Explained.
A few years ago, I came up with a move order to stop the dreaded Maroczy Bind, where White puts their pawns on e4 and c4, creating a powerful bind in the center. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4, we play 4…Nf6!? to reach this position:
White’s e4 pawn is attacked, and they will likely play 5.Nc3 (no more c4 bind!) This now gives Black an opportunity to either try to get to the Accelerated Dragon with 5…Nc6 or play the Dragondorf with 5…d6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 h5! I’ve covered both of these options in my Chessable course.
The Hungarian Dragon
The subject for this post is the new type of Dragon variant, called the Hungarian Dragon. I’m not sure where the name came from, but I’m guessing it was named after SuperGM Richard Rapport, who was the first to use this setup at the highest level.
The setup is somewhat similar to the Dragondorf but with two major differences: Black keeps the bishop on g7 and plays Nc6 instead of a6.
The position below could be reached via several move orders. My HAD move order: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 h5! or the conventional Dragon move order: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 h5!
The point of …h5 is to forever stop White’s expansion on the kingside and meet 8.Qd2 with 8…Nxd4 9.Bxd4 Bh6! This is the fundamental idea of the Hungarian Dragon.
After analyzing this setup, I can confidently say it's an absolute powerhouse for club players. That's why I’ve turned it into a full repertoire for my members, starting from the position above! You can watch my breakdown of the main concepts and some killer attacking ideas in the free video below.
Paid members can download the full PGN files from the Openings Vault right away.
The video above covers the core concepts. But if you want to crush the Yugoslav Attack in your next club game, having the exact moves ready to review is the ultimate shortcut.
To add the Hungarian Dragon to your repertoire today, become a paid member of Grandmaster Secrets.
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The Openings Vault: The Hungarian Dragon PGN, plus my permanent library of “Gambit Killers.”
The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes.
The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.
I have a serious question here. You have mentioned old man chess. Then offer the Dragon as an option. Isn’t the Dragon a lot of theory and quite sharp and dynamic. How is that old man chess? Or am I missing something? Which is quite possible.