Which line against the Dragon?

Hey, I have been playing the Yugoslav attack against the dragon for quite a while. Usually I like to play 0-0-0 against the Sicilian Defenses but in the dragon I all to often find myself in a situation where the position is super sharp and where I have to know the right move and cannot rely on general principles. As I do not want to spend my time studying all the dragon theory I am looking for an alternative way to face the dragon. I am considering having a look at 6.g3, the classical 6.Be2; the Levenfish attack 6.f4, or 6.Bc4 + 0-0. As I have never played any of those: Can you recommend me an easy to learn, solid line against the dragon to get a playable position? Cheers?

There is the possibility of transposing into maroczy bind v. the dragon with 5. f3 Nc6 6. c4 where black has the option of putting ...Bg7 though ...Be7 also available. Some games are Shanglei-Chao 2010, Shanglei-Noroozi 2011, McShane-DeFirmian 2003.

Though probably need to be prepared for 5. f3 e5 also which may or not be to your liking.

If u want simple and clear chess, just play Be2 and short castle.

Then u have choice : Be3/f4, or Re1 followed by Bf1-Nd5-Bg5 is a nice idea.

The thing to remember is : when black plays Nc6, u can either protect Nd4 with Be3 or retreating in b3. It depends on the plan u want to achieve : if u chose Re1, u want to play on e-file, so don't block it with Be3 and go for Nb3. On Be3, Nb3 is fine too, but not forced.

Honestly this sounds like one of those "I lost a game and am blaming the opening" posts. Playing the Yugoslav Attack as White isn't so theoretical as White only needs to know a fraction of the theory Black does.

First branch point is at move 9. White chooses between 0-0-0 Bc4 or g4, already Black is required to know three times as much as White.

After 9. 0-0-0, which would be my choice,  the critical and by far most common move is d5, and again on move 10 White has a ton of choice and only needs to learn one line while Black needs to prepare for them all. 10.Qe1 is a solid move here, since you asked for a solid line, that's my recommendation to you.

The Sicilian Dragon is notoriously easy to bash off the board, in the Yugoslav Attack the onus is on Black to know and prepare for all the lines, not White who only needs to select and learn one line. If the Sicilian Dragon was as popular as the Najdorf I'd play the Open Sicilian with glee.

Quite like the classical line with 6Be2, then typically nb3 after Nc6, and Bg5. Karpov played quite a few games with it in '77, then curiously never played it again. Can find these games annotated varous places. 

Thanks all for your replies. Appreciate it.

@poucin and TwoMove: Thanks, that Re1 Bf1 line sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

@Dolphin: I am sure you are right, but through the last 3 years(!) or so my results against the dragon have been considerably worse than against the Najdorf. I know the dragon is considered somewhat dubious among GM's, so maybe I am not tactically sharp enough to feel comortable in those positions. I'll have a look at that 10. Qe1 line you suggested though...

One advantage of learning the classical is can use more or less the same ideas against the english. 

The 6. Be2 is fine but it's often hard to get much out of it. White can at times end up playing more counter.  Personally I've always felt the Nb3, Nc3 set up a bit awkward.

As Karpov found he needed to get his wins against the toughest players with White, it probably makes sense he might've leaned toward variations with a bit more pull. 

In your losses against the Dragon what was the rating of your opponents?

Contrary to popular belief about the "booked up Dragon player" Dragon players rarely see the Yugoslav Attack. I played the Dragon for two years as my exclusive defense against 1.e4. In about 65% of those games White never played the Open Sicilian, and out of the remaining 35% less than half were Yugoslav Attack games and out of those less than half again were Yugoslav Attacks with 9.0-0-0. As Black I barely knew any theory at all because I hardly got the opening on the board, and If you play the Yugoslav as White you'll get it more than Black does. I hated to see the Yugoslav as Black, that's why I play the Accelerated Dragon now. I also like playing against 6.Be2 as Black and when I tried to use the classical Sicilian as White I hated it. In the classical lines White is supposed to castle kingside and start pushing the pawns in front of their own king with f4, g4, etc.

I thought people played the Open Sicilian instead of anti-Sicilians because they'd decided it was worth some work in order to get an opening advantage, but then when they play the 6.Be2 lines it's like they're going back to playing an anti-Sicilian again.

The Yugoslav Attack is a great opening for White, do some research on it to see all your options within it and decide which specific Yugoslav lines you want to play. There are many good Open Sicilian repertoire books out there that could help.

Dolphin27,

I agree. I like playing the Dragon as black and rather face any White 0-0 setup versus f3, 0-0-0 and the g&h push. So much so that I often go for 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 a6 which suggests to White that 0-0 might be a better option. And I heard that computers mostly agree with that assessment.

Of course there are other problems for the black Dragon to solve in these types of lines but at least getting mated on the h-file isn't usually one of them. 

Hm, that's an interesting idea. It seems like you're playing some kind of Dragadorf set up. Have you ever looked into the Accelerated Dragon?

Dolphin27 wrote:

Hm, that's an interesting idea. It seems like you're playing some kind of Dragadorf set up. Have you ever looked into the Accelerated Dragon?

Though I saw the videos by GM's Seirawan and Perelshteyn, which both seem positive on the accelerated, I never spent the time looking at it from the black side. Maybe just lazy. Ironically, I did spend some time considering it from whites POV as it seemed a bit harder to hinder black equalizing than maybe some other Sicilian lines.

Nckchris, If you don't like facing the Yugoslav as Black you might seriously consider switching. I've never played an opening that has won me as many games as the Accelerated Dragon. Playing 6...a6 instead of 6...Bg7 in a normal Dragon doesn't actually prevent a Yugoslav Attack, and it looks like White is scoring very well. The Accelerated Dragon flat out prevents it and if people try it, which they will, they get punished. The Maroczy Bind is easy and fun to play against as well using the Gurgenidze system, Black plays for pawn breaks and you just have to know the general set-up, ideas and motifs, not much theory.

yeah,i even iplay the Maroczy Bind against the Sicilian

I play the dragon as black all of the time and others mentioned the qe1 line getting out of pin is not difficult for black to prepare. Also all classicals go to d5 looking to exchange. I would look either to the anti-sicilians or especially the maroczy bind which I feel is very strong for white. The c4, e4 pawn set-up is very strong and puts black from an offensive position into a draw at best.

To get to the Dragon you have to get past a lot of other offbeat Sicilians, starting with stuff like 2...Nf6 and 2...d5.

If you're not experienced with the sidelines, the main lines won't help you so much.  Book up in those and you'll often find the answers you seek anyway.

Hmm... Interesting. Is that that line when Black plays ...d5 and White sacrices the queen for two rooks?

I am not sure if I understand... I never meet 2... d5 or 2... Nf6. And why are those moves related to the dragon?

Yeah that's one of the options, and that endgame is better for White than people used to think since theoreticians found a Bb5 plan. Also there are other more double-edged options that leave a lot of room for error for both sides. Whoever knows it better will generally get the better position.