Dragonmasters II - by Andrew Burnett (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

When 1975 dawned, the Sicilian Dragon, the most ferocious and exciting of openings the chess world had ever known, was on its knees begging for mercy.

Anatoly Karpov had just slain Viktor Korchnoi and Fischer's contemptuous approach -- "open the h-file, sac, sac, mate!" -- seemed to have spelled the Dragon's end. But already in the background there were acolytes attempting to repair the damage, to replace the beast's scales and recharge its fiery breath.

DragonMasters Volume 2 covers the tempestuous two decades that followed, pitting the world's deadliest attackers against each other: tactical brutes such as Planinc and Velimirovic, Miles and Mestel, Short and Tiviakov -- all choosing sides in the greatest opening debate of all.

Would the sword-and-spear DragonSlayer followers of Karpov and Fischer prevail once again? Or would the reinvigorated DragonMasters prove that myth and legend could survive in a modern setting? The final answer would arrive at the very top of the world...

Review Quotes

DragonMasters II Resurrection by Scottish Fide Master Andrew Burnett is the second volume of a trilogy that examines the Dragon variation of the Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6) from an historical perspective. The present work covers the period from 1974 to 1995, tracing the ups and downs of the opening from Korchnoi's loss with it to Karpov in the 1974 Candidates Final (which turned out to be a defacto World Championship match) to Kasparov's successful rehabilitation of it in his 1995 World Championship match with Viswanathan Anand. Along the way the games of Dragon heroes like Tarjan, Mestel, Sosonko, Velimirovic, Miles, Ernst, and Tiviakov are extensively annotated.

'Two nice touches in this book are the inclusion of long forgotten games from a tournament held in Utrecht in 1986 which pitted Dutch amateurs against the likes of Jan Timman and Tony Miles and Robert Huebner's clock simul against the best German junior players the same year. Both were thematic events in which the use of the Dragon was compulsory.

'This book is not a theoretical guide to the Dragon. If you are looking for an inspirational work that explains the ideas behind the Dragon and how the opening has developed, Dragon Masters II Resurrection is the book for you.'
--IM John Donaldson, Chess Newsletter, Mechanics' Institute April 2026