Dragon players?

Is there likely to be much success with the dragon or is it easily refutable with the Yugoslav attack?

no major opening is refutable

there is no refutation but black must study harder than white.

White makes an inaccuracy,and the position might slightly favor black.

However black makes a mistake and the dragon gets decapitated

cool.

i would like to be able to play the dragon but stronger players advise against it.

If you analyse this opening (I recommend to study Gufeld's books which explain various aspects very good) it is not so easy for white to win. I love playing dragon because it gives me counterplay and attack since the very beginning unlike many Najdorf lines which require black to defend for a long time eventually coming up with material advntage.

If you are an attacking player who wants to play for the win with black you should no doubt include dragon in your repertoire.

Among the top players, Topalov played dragon several times with successes. Look how Short got upset and finally lost the Yugoslav attack against him:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124654

And here one of my games where I beat a higher-rated opponent in an OTB long game:

Here fast game (15|0) with death sentence on white king

And another bloody 15|0

If you like this kind of playing then I strongly recommend you give a chance to the dragon

dzikus,

very sharp games!

estragon,

you are right. it is a very sharp opening. i am presently in the process of exploring it.

i guess it's about as sharp as any gambit

In the mainlines, one or both sides invariably end up sacrificing material, so it basically is a gambit.

You are absolutely right, white achieves little without sacrificing the pawn on h5 and black is usually forced to destroy the knight on c3 with his rook but can also be forced to sac a minor on g4 to stop white's attack

In some lines crazy positions emerge where white has rook while black is happy with 4 chained passers at kingside.

There is likely to be a lot of work. It is not refuted, but one has to know all the ins and outs of the system to employ it properly.

Some of the key players (whose games to review) - Tiviakov, Golubev and myself