Many thanks for your message to the Forum Chris!

I always enjoy the Dragon updates and now look forward to increased "interactivity" between Chris/Gawain, subscribers and the Forum.

Hi guys,
First up I do want to say that your contribution to the site is valued and I people that read your posts clearly take enjoyment in doing so. It’s true that I do have a pretty busy life these days and that’s why Gawain now shares the Dragon responsibilities. I wouldn’t want to leave the site as the Dragon is still a topic very dear to me. I don’t play as much competitive chess as I used to but that situation could change and I will always take pride in my outings with the Dragon.
Basically I have always tried to get anyone to e-mail in direct if there is something that you want us to take a look at or promote as an idea of your own. I honestly never ignore anything that reaches me so I apologise Phil that somewhere along the line your Nd5 e-mail was lost. I have got it now and it will figure in the next update.
As you know generally the games we feature are pretty current and consequently we don’t avoid hot theoretical issues but I agree that we could perhaps tie that in with any analysis you guys have done here. Ideally if anyone wants to sum up any analysis or make any conclusions from time to time and e-mail them in that would be great. Having said that I will try to at least take a look at the forums more often.
Looking now...

1)      Well I remember somewhere investigating early ...a5 ideas before but am happy to revisit them.
2)      That Bu line with ...Na5 is either via an Accelerated Dragon move order or after the Yugoslav Attack where White makes the selection 10 Bb3 as opposed to 10 0-0-0 or the currently more annoying (e.g. for Chinese Dragon and ...Nxd4 with ...b5 line enthusiasts) 10 h4. Still am also happy to do more on it if you want.
3)      9 0-0-0 d5 10 Kb1 is an ongoing theme. Actually am about to commentate on the London Chess Classic where of course last year we had Short-Carlsen. It would be nice if Magnus could thrill us with another Dragon encounter or two this year although recently he appears to have been playing silly stuff!
4)      We are also trying to keep abreast of the main Soltis variation with and without Kb1 and either ...Re8 or ...a6. Feel free to send in new ideas and particularly if those lines remain in the spotlight, they will all included.
5)      I still haven’t forgotten about that 9 g4 so that will feature again in the not too distant future.

Okay that’s it for now everyone. Sorry if I have inadvertantly upset anyone and thanks again.

Best wishes Chris

One thing I have been missing is actually a comment on "Cutting edge, open Sicilian" lines, particellry in Chinese Dragon chapters. While Cutting edge called it unclear, black must play very accurate in these lines.

Chris is too busy dancing.
There were some problems sending emails to Chris at one point, so it is quite possible that he never received the emails in question.

Phil Adams wrote on 10/19/10 at 16:25:22:


So, another Dragon update , interesting as usual, with mention of an email from a subscriber that Gawain Jones has dealt with (hurray!) but little evidence of the desirable "interconnectivity" between the updates and the forum, for instance still no update concerning Bu's interesting and potentially important handling with...Na5.
See http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1287830866

I think this section is more usfull than Dearings books since it is more up to date but Dearings book has also other plusses by providing a repertoire. Much has happended since Dearing wrote hes book, particularly in all versions of the yugoslav attack and some of Dearings recommendations has not stood the test of time or ran out of fashion. Entire games are annotated and strategy explained. The section covers all major theoretical develoments in the enitre Dragon (and also accelerated Dragon) and gets updated regulary. Chinese Dragon is indeed well covered here and has many lines unmentioned by books.

I emailed Ward some games in a few lines I thought was critical a few years ago and got no reply either. Other games in emailed at the same times was Karjakin-Ivanchuk that was not in a critical line but the players are world elite players and it was before Carlsen and Radjabov started to play the Dragon.

However, I know that Jones sometimes checks the forum as I have been credited for some lines in some annotations.