That looks very interesting, thanks. I remember I was discussing in another thread about applying a Yugoslav attack against the Accelerated Dragon too and I will see if I can make it semi-work with this Bc4-Bb3 system (of course with some limitations due to the 8. .. Qb6 lines).

In any case I am very fond of 'waiting/elastic' moves like Bb3. It definitely looks interesting!

chk wrote on 07/12/07 at 05:07:27:


One place to start is 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. Bb3 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5, which is the traditional objection to the 10. Bb3 move order. That line is still Dragon expert Tiviakov's choice when faced with 10.Bb3 (he recently drew two games in the Dutch championship against Nijboer 12.a4 and Stellwagen 12. h4).

<belgian/>

MNb wrote on 07/11/07 at 20:13:59:

Sorry, I forgot the "zwischenzug" 9. Bc4-00. It is clear that b5 (after Rb8) would not be so effective with the bishop on f1

blueguitar322 wrote on 07/11/07 at 14:39:58:

After 8...Bd7 9. 000 black can play Rb8 going for the chinese dragon and white must know very well what he is going to do.

9 g4 lines are often very drawish.
In the mainlines White must enter an ending or else blacks attack is much faster.
Sure Karpov has won a few games but that is Karpov being Karpov.

EDIT sample game

[Event "Dortmund"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1997.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Polgar, J."]
[Black "Anand, V."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B76"]
[WhiteElo "2670"]
[BlackElo "2765"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[EventDate "1997.??.??"]
[Source "ChessPublishing."]
[SourceDate "2004.12.06"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2 O-O 9. g4 Be6 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Qa5 12. a3 Rfc8 13. h4
Rab8 14. Kb1 b5 15. Nd5 Qxd2 16. Rxd2 Nxd5 17. Bxg7 Ne3 18. Bd4 Nxf1 19. Rxf1
a5 20. e5 1/2-1/2

EDIT 2 Andrew Martin writes as comment to Anand-Kasparov 1995 WC match 15 when Anand played 9 g4 "Anand wasn't really having much luck with 9 Bc4 in this match and so chooses a solid line to try to avoid losing!" 

[Event "15th matchgame, PCA World Ch. (Game 24)"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1995.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Anand, V."]
[Black "Kasparov, G."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B76"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[EventDate "1995.??.??"]
[Source "Everyman Chess"]
[SourceDate "2006.10.01"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2
Nc6 9. g4 Be6 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Qa5 12. Kb1 Rfc8 13. a3 Rab8 14. Nd5 Qxd2
15. Rxd2 Nxd5 16. Bxg7 Ne3 1/2-1/2

I am going an location to Estonia for a couple of days so I can not answer any repsones util Friday.

The most problematic lines for black in my eyes is either 9 0-0-0 or 9 Bc4 Bd7 10 Bb3.

EDIT 3 The point of 10 Bb3 is to avoid the Chinese since in that variation it is black (and not white) that has an attack.
10 Bb3 also avoids the solid Soltis defence after h4 h5.
The idea of Bb3 is to play 0-0-0 after Rc8 (Nxd4 is also possible) and after Ne5 (Topalovs Nxd4 Bxd4 b5 is also possilbe) play Kb1 Re8 h4 h5 Bh6 reaching a more favoralbe version of the Soltis, but since Ivanchuk was willing to enter this line recently, blacks position is playable.

Systems with g4 and h4 are quite nice for white when Black has already castled (short). When Black lets his King in the centre, it could be a waste of time. Therefore playing Bc4 first seems more accurate (black should wait until this move to castle in the Yugoslav attack). In all these lines, white's attack is very thematic (as Fisher once said: sac, sac and mate!) but white must have prepared something against rapid counterplay on the Q-side (especially against the chinese dragon) and know what to do in case black transposes into the Soltis playing h5.