Damn! Still no other smilies??? 

WWTD2 is definitely an excellent book, although it could be better! What are attrocious is the Attila Schneider CD Dragon for Experts and his books, which where probably OK for the time, but now are absolutely useless.

Ward does a fantastic job of explaining the opening. It takes months to fully understand what he has achieved although immediately a lot goes through. A truly amazing job.

The problem(s) I see is that some of the lines are truly refuted and the proposed solutions of 2001 completely useless nowadays.

I believe it has something to do with the switch from 13...b5 to 13...Nc4 in some of the lines of 10...Qa5. Also of course with the opening. The Berlin Defence is not going to experiment such pace!

As far as I can make it the truth is that very few players really know the critical lines in ALL the openings so the Dragon is a good gamble after all. It will score many (easy, quick, enjoyable) points although the occassional rout could be painful.

Cebalo's handling of the opening is worth following, although I am beginning to understand the popularity of the Najdorf (it stands the highest testing)

In all WWTD 2 stands as one of the best opening books of all time, good for many players. From 2300+ is less comprehensive than, say, Sakaev book on the Grunfeld, but poor you if you know nothing about the Grunfeld and buy Sakaev's book. (Although is certainly opening book on a complete different level than anything before)

Well, thanks everybody!!!
I think I have all my answers!!!

No Glen, its not a beginners book and for only 144 pages it contains a surprising amount of information.  

In fact I don't think its suitable for beginners at all, as it is a little light on verbal explanation which is so crucial for guiding the less experienced Dragon player, but in 144 pages u cannot have everything. Nevertheless Golubev's book makes an excellent companion to Ward's work.

Maybe both Ward and Golubev should be giving me a portion of their future royalties for promoting their work.  

All joking aside, Opening books written by practitioners of the Opening in question are usually worth getting.  

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Postscript :- Wonderer, to have a risky opening in your rep as black is one thing but to have one as your main weapon as white is just foolhardy.  Thanks for the survey though, its appreciated.

LOL, sometimes u guyz just kill me  

Without a doubt Ward's books on the dragon are the best on the market, hands down no question. His first book WWTD 1 is the reason why I took up the Dragon in the first place and I have not regretted it since. 

Ok, on to specifics, you should definetly get both books and here are a list of reasons why:

1) Ward actually plays or played the stuff he recommends in his books, which allows the reader a unique insight into the mind and Opening laboratory of a GM.

2) The fact that Ward was prepared to virtually lay out his own repertoire for the world and in particular his opponents to scrutinze shows incredible bravery and faith in his lines.

3) The fact that over time some of the lines in both books are now under threat is irrelevant. If you really want to play the Dragon successfully, the first thing u must learn is that an opening book will never contain all the answers, as they tend to date quickly. Therefore u mustbe prepared to do some work on your own, to maintain the durability of the repertoire u choose.

4) What Ward's books seek to and succeed in doing, at least in my case, is to impart on the reader the Spirit of the Dragon. Ward does such a good job of verbally illustrating the tactical as well as strategical themes  of the Dragon, that after thoroughly absorbing the contents of the book/books one should be confident enough to not only play this opening, but to come up with and explore some novelties of your own.

5) The fact that despite Ward's laying out his controversial repertoire in print since 1994, I find it remarkable that so many of his colleagues are still reluctant to test many of the critical and so called refuted lines against him. That says a lot for Ward's reputation as a player, analyst and writer.

6) Ward's two books on the Dragon in my opinion rank as amongst the best Opening repertoire books ever written, along  with John Watson's 'Play the French' trilogy.

Simply put Ward's two Dragon Books are classics and a must have in any serious players' library. It should be noted though that the Dragon is a very complex opening, and as such one will need to invest in some reference works in order to fully appreciate its versatility.   

What more can I say.

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If you can afford it then buy both books.  There are some thinkgs covered in the first that aren't in the second.  Of course I may be in the minority who like to have everything on the openings they play.  If you only get one then get the second WWTD.  It's the most recent really good book written on the Dragon.  I think most of the otheres are marginal at best.  Perhaps a separate thread should be started where we could all comment on the available Dragon material out there!?

If your going to make the Dragon your defense to 1.e4 I think it would be worthwhile to own both WWTD and WWTD2.  (I understand $ can be a problem though.)  I don't think the 9.O-O-O Bd7 variation is completely refuted considering Paul Hopwood's suggested improvement in one of the lines with ...h5.  I know I've been guilty of thinking some of these variations were dead and buried only to have others start scoring a lot of points with them.  It pays to keep investigating all the throughways and byways.  Hopefully Mr.Dearing's book is going to be a good one!

Thx Amateur Dragoneer!!!
I would not say that I am a "master" of the dragon, so I might need the book...
anyway, as I think I would like to play the Chinese variation, do you know where I can find some coverage of it???
I will check other posts, I think I have seen mentions of some CB magazine...
as to the 9. 000 d5 variation, it seems that it is being debated in other posts so I will have a look there to find the most relevant lines!