The Yugoslav Attack
Considered to be the main line that gives maximum chances for both sides is the Yugoslav Attack (also known as the Rauzer Attack for its inventor) which continues 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3. The point of White's last move is to safeguard e4 and to stop Black from playing ...Nf6-g4 harassing White's dark squared bishop. Note that Black cannot play 6.Be3 Ng4?? immediately because of 7.Bb5+ winning a piece. Play usually continues 7...0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 and now there are fundamentally two distinct branches with 9.0-0-0 leading to more positional play while 9.Bc4 leads to highly tactical double-edged positions.

The Yugoslav exemplifies the spirit of the Dragon with race-to-mate pawn storms on opposite sides of the board. White tries to break open the Black kingside and deliver mate down the h-file, while Black seeks counterplay on the queenside with sacrificial attacks. Typical White strategies are exchanging dark-squared bishops by Be3-h6, sacrificing material to open the h-file, and exploiting pressure on the a2-g8 diagonal and the weakness of the d5 square.

Black will typically counterattack on the queenside, using his queenside pawns, rooks, and dark squared bishop. He sometimes plays h5 (the Soltis Variation) to defend against White's kingside attack. Other typical themes for Black are exchanging White's light-square Bishop by Nc6-e5-c4, pressure on the c-file, sacrificing the exchange on c3, advancing the b-pawn and pressure on the long diagonal. Black will generally omit ...a6, because White will generally win a straight pawn attack, because black has given White a hook on g6 to attack. Generally, White will avoid moving their pawns on a2/b2/c2, and so Black's pawn storm will nearly always be slower than White's respective one on the kingside. Black can sometimes obtain an acceptable endgame even after sacrificing the exchange because of White's h-pawn sacrifice and doubled pawns.


[edit] Yugoslav attack with 9.0-0-0
 
         
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
 
 
 
Position after 16... Be6!
After years of believing White's best play and chance for advantage lay in the main line with 9.Bc4, this older main line made a major comeback. White omits Bc4 in order to speed up the attack. It used to be thought that allowing 9... d5!? here allows Black to equalize easily but further analysis and play have proved that things are not so clear cut. A brilliancy found for White one day is soon enough overturned by some new resource for Black. A case in point is the following line where the evaluation of a major line was turned upside down overnight because of an ingenious queen sacrifice played by GM Mikhail Golubev, an expert on the Dragon Variation. After 9.0-0-0 d5!? play continued 10.Kb1!? Nxd4 11.e5! Nf5! 12.exf6 Bxf6 13.Nxd5 Qxd5! 14.Qxd5 Nxe3 15.Qd3 Nxd1 16.Qxd1 Be6!, where Black has sufficient compensation for the queen.