I (finally) got to try this line out yesterday at the U.S. Amateur Team East Tournament. The result? I upset a player 494 points higher!! After 10. h4!? dxe4 11. h5 Nxh5? 12. g4 Ng3? 13. Qh2! Nxh1 14. Nxc6 Qe8 15. Nd5! (all from Tiviakov's monograph), I already had a winning position without even wasting 5 minutes off my clock!! My opponent, on the other hand, spent no less than a total of 57 minutes pondering her first 15 moves. The game continued 15...Kh8 16. Bb5 Qd7 17. Ndxe7 Bxb2+? 18. Kxb2 Qxd1 19. Bd4+ f6 20. Nxg6+ Kg7 21. Nxf8 Bf5 22. Qc7+! Kxf8 23. Qe7+ Kg8 24. Bc4+ Be6 25. Bxe6+ Kh8 26. Qxf6 mate.

Tiviakov gives 12...Nxh5 13. Qe3 e5 (13...Bxd4 14. Rxd4 with the idea of Nxe4 and g4 gives White the initiative and a clear advantage according to Tiv.) 14. Bc5 Qa5 15. Bxf8 Kxf8 16. Rd5 Qc7 17. Rc5 Qe7 18. Nd5 Qd6 19. fxe4 was, according to Tiv., clearly better for White in Akopian-Movsesian, SSSR 1985. 13...exd4 14. hxg7 Re8 is actually Tiviakov's suggested main line, though I have yet to find any games with this variation. From here he gives 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. fxe4 Qf6 (the greedy and foolish 16...Rxe4?? is crushed by 17. Qh6 which is winning for white according to Tiv.) 17. Bc4 Qg7 18. Qxd4 Bg4 as unclear with the note 19. Rd2 Qxd4 20. Rxd4 Re7 21. Bd5 Rc8 unclear from Akopian-Tiviakov, SSSR 1986. However, I still prefer White here and even before I think White can improve. While on move 17 White should be thinking about getting out the bishop, I think 17. Rh6 Qxg7 18. Bb5 Rd8 (what else?) 19. Rdh1 on 18. Rh6 with the same idea of doubling on the h-file is quite powerful and 18. Qxd4 seems to be a cop out move to me. Certainly I can understand that Akopian would not want to play this kind of middlegame against Tiviakov who has an amazing aptitude for such Dragon positions, but keeping the queen's on seems more in the spirit of the opening to me. I don't know exactly what moves to chose, but certainly trading queens looks kind of dull. While eventually white may need to trade queens and go to an endgame, trying to put pressure down the h-file looks like a better try to me. Either way, White's chances are pretty amazing for an offbeat variation that no modern (published since 1997) book that I've seen even mentions.

This kind of stems from my post in the "Alterman and 9...d5" topic. I finally found a NEW(!!) copy of Tiviakov's B75-76 manuscript and this is (at least for now) my new weapon against 9. O-O-O d5. I have seen no mention of it anywhere else and it looks pretty viable. The main line runs 10...dxe4 11. h5 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 e5 13. h6 and I have White scoring 100% from here. Unless Black has a huge improvement somewhere along the line, this looks pretty good for an offbeat variation.