Well I thought somebody would take a look into that. But I guess I have to do a closer inspection myself. For starters I believed that the move 17.Bh6 could work better because there is no intermezzo ...Nxe4. The d4 knight is defended by the rook d1. But, on 17.Bh6 black responds 17...Bxh6 18.Qxh6 Qc7 19.Kb1 Rc8 20.Rd3 Rc5 21.g4 hxg4 22.h5 Rxh5 23.Rxh5 gxh5 24.Nd5 Nxd5 25.exd5 (25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Qh6+ Kg8 with a draw.) 25...Bf5 26.Qg5+ Bg6 27.fxg4 h4 28.Rc3 Qd7 with equality.

Still I think there are different options to be investigated. One of them is 17.Kb1. And even previously. But I guess we all have to do a lot of homework!

Mikhail_Golubev wrote on 02/10/20 at 05:46:38:


I wondered about 14.Qd3 Ne5 15.Qe3 Nc4 16.Bxc4 Rxc4 if this position would favor white, and if any improvement is needed for black? Also it will be white's turn next. So he wins a tempo!

Glenn Snow wrote on 01/09/20 at 19:20:26:


Thanks a lot for checking that! Those "old" refutations are what I was looking forward to. The fact, that one of the lines known to be critical can be easily improved for black, gives me some confidence to play 13...Nc4 in my next tournament game

TonyRo wrote on 01/08/20 at 20:39:57:


yeah, 9.0-0-0 is indeed annoying. My own approach is to vary as much as possible between my lines against the Bd4-line. I don´t think that the traditional ...e5-move is bad in a practical sense, but you clearly shouldn´t risk going down one of the main lines, if White has enough reason und time to learn the right move orders til move 20.

I've said it before and I say it again - you can have both chicken and cow.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5.
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nge2 (3.Nf3) g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 and you get all the equise parts of the cow. 

TonyRo wrote on 01/08/20 at 20:39:57:

The Kalashnikov?! 

XChess1971 wrote on 01/08/20 at 02:05:07:


In the end it is all about concrete lines in the Dragon. Obviously you can try to explain in words, why the Burnett is worse for black than the 13.Kb1-Soltis, but the main reason IMHO is, that Stockfish shows a white advantage in the one line and not in the other  
To play Nc4 is a pretty typical idea in the dragon, I think we would both agree on that. In the concrete position there are even some very concrete reasons, why it might work out for black:
After 14.Bxc4 Rxc4 you are immediatily threatening Nxe4 or Nxg4, because d4 is not protected by the bishop on e3. And if White plays 15.Nb3 or Nde2, I see no reason, why it should not be an improved version of the 13.Kb1-Soltis.
After 14.Qd3 it seems, that 14...Na5 is indeed quite risky for black. But even if black is willing to repeat with 14...Ne5, I think objectively there is no better move for White than 15.Qd2. Obviously 15.Qe3 is an option, but 15...Nc4 16.Bxc4 Rxc4 seems to be at least as fine as the immediate 14.Bxc4 Rxc4. I guess having the queen on e3 instead of d2 has pros and cons, but I see no reasons, why black should be afraid of this option.

The last option (and it seems the main line) is 14.Qe2. After ...Na5 15.Kb1!?black has the strong 15...Rxc3 16.bxc3 Qb6!, which seems to be fine according to SF (eval=0,00) and correspondence chess. There seems to be a lot to discover and I would rather play these "fresh" positions instead of the 35-move-deep-theoretical lines, where White can prepare dangerous stuff for a single game and the slightest slip might cost you the game.

The point of putting the knight on "e5" is to keep an eye on your king, eye g4 breaks. Also support a possible counter attack. Depending on what white plays you want to deploy your pieces. It is pretty curious that in the Soltis once white plays 13.Kb1 13...Nc4 looks to be a good move. While if played 12.Kb1 (Instead of 12.h4) Nc4 doesn't seem to get the job done. That's why people prefer to deviate into the Topalov nowadays.
You need to have a very strong justification to jump around with the queen's knight. Otherwise you could get busted!

gewgaw wrote on 01/06/20 at 18:50:39:


Yeah, I haven´t too much faith in this Burnett variation for black. Both 15.b3 and 15.h4 are enough reason for me to avoid it. Black might have enough resources not to be lost by force, but it seems to be quite a struggle to survive. Luckily for us, the Topalov and the Chinese Dragon seem to hold up quiet nicely (and I would rather go for some of the Qa5-setups than for the Burnett )

I agree about the 13...Rc5-move in the Soltis. Should be fine objectively. But there is so much theory and I was looking for a shortcut:D And I was just surprised, that Stockfish showed me no clear path to an advantage. In my mind I always thought, that 13...Nc4 is more or less refuted- and maybe it is, but my old laptop lacks some bruteforce power when it comes to analysing sharp variations:D