Meanwhile I found some interesting things elsewhere on this forum; I didn't knew there was so much fantastic information about openings around here! But tnx anyway Glenn

Owww, sorry guys.. Of course i'd wanted to ask u if u can give me some interesting ideas for black in the yugoslavian variation. 

I already know some plans, but i wonder if there are maybe more surprises in this great opening 

Hi guys! God is in the house   

Can someone tell me somthing about the plans for white in the yugoslavian variation...?

OldSchool is right about....what???!! I don't know which comment you're talking about!!

There is a thread here entitled "9.0-0-0: A critical line under the microscope".  It has some interesting analysis concerning the 9...Nxd4 variation.  There some strong continuations were suggested for White.  I have to admit that I haven't looked at this in awhile and not all of the posts critically.  Last post under that topic was a suggestion for Black by M.Golubev.

First off, I did not mean for the board to be that serious, secondly, thanks glenn for taking a shot at the Blackmar diemar gambit which is far from dead. I will post there is a second. And as far as the dragon goes, I don't understand why after 9.0-0-0 d5!? 10. Kb1 Rb8 is just not playable. I like it and have had fritz and shredder working on it for 2 days, and I must say I like my findings. However, the question to me remains why we haven't seen it played more, and why Kasparov said it was dead, which was the impetus for the post.

People are getting a little philosophic in here...

Let me state one thing: The Dragon never was, nor is or ever will be "dead". Frankly speaking, even if Garry Kasparov declared the Dragon to be dead I couldn´t care less. As a player with a current Fide ELO Rating of 2358 I hardly play our Dear Garry twice a week and I somehow have the feeling you don´t play him that often either. My opponents of similar strenght didn´t even come close to refuting my opening play. If you are a Elo 1800 player you had better other things to ponder than what may happen if you play a Super GM.

Did I lose Dragon games? Sure I did! You may look it up in every database, but I seldom lost because of the opening but most often because I was outplayed by stronger opposition. This unfortunately happens from time to time in our beloved game.

So please do me a favour. Unless you are an ELO  2700+ player, don´t declare a Dragon line "refuted". Just state instead YOU were incapable of finding an improvement in a certain line and wait for a strong IM or GM to change the theory with his latest game.

9.0-0-0 is the positional solution and the choice of most strong players not because it is the strongest move but because it is less dangerous for White than 9.Lc4 where White can easily lose if he´s not up to date with current theory. With 0-0-0 White can outplay weaker opponets without taking much risk.

After 9.0-0-0 both 9...d5 and 9...Nd4 are perfectly playable. 9...Ld7 is probably fundamentally unsound though it is difficult to cope with over the board. Black has various improvement over current theory most of them consisting of move-order-tricks which may be eventually insufficient for equality but certainly make the line playable.

Pls also note that a slightly worse position for Black is OK in opening theory. If you understand the themes and plans you will easily outplay your opponent even from a worse position. This is especially valid regarding players with ELO below 2200.

Stefan

With GM Ward being M.I.A and fellow dragoneers trying to cope with the loss of this system. Is it true that the dragon lives no more. Is it the case that 9.0-0-0 is the "truth" and we shall never see the dragon rear its mythical head once again? 

Its sad, but lets take a moment of silence for the dragon.