Is the Sicilian Dragon close to refuted?

There have been several threads discussing the Sicilian Dragon lately. 

Many GMs appear to agree with Sam Shankland's opinion that the Sicilian is close to refuted at elite levels. Hikaru Nakamura, now the number 2 ranked player in the world, has used it a few times recently, but few other elite GMs have used it on a regular basis since Karpov won a nice strategic victory against Korchnoi in 1974. 

Karpov has scored 88% in my database playing against the Sicilian Dragon (see the starting position below). 

The Dragon showed up again in the 1995 World Championship match between Kasparov and Anand. Kasparov won twice with this surprise weapon, which of course created tremendous interest in this popular club-level opening:

There have been attempts to resuscitate the Dragon, especially by a group of strong Chinese GMs. This is known as the Chinese Dragon with 11...Na5 . But that has run into some problems in correspondence chess:

There's an excellent article on the Chinese Dragon here:

http://chess-brabo.blogspot.be/2015/01/details.html

Lately, Nakamura has played the Dragon with solid results:

The notes to that Caruana-Nakamura game are by Nakamura himself.

I don't really like Dragons

Kasparov used it against Short in their World Championship match...

Karpov was an awesome player, and despite being a World Champion, was somewhat underrated. Have you compared his performance against other defences?

I'm a fairly recent convert to the Dragon after a couple of strong performances in thematics here, i even dared to play it OTB against a team from Edinburgh called "Wandering Dragons", who mostly play the Dragon. I'm pretty certain that my extensive database would have helped me here, but was also comfortable with it OTB.

I've also done a lot of work on what i thought was the Chinese Dragon, 10...Rb8!? New In Chess have a good article by Luc Henris  https://www.newinchess.com/Yearbook/pdf/YB62_31.pdf

I thought the Chinese Dragon is Rb8 with the idea of b7-b5?

At the club-level it is not refuted, but on the top level, I would say yes. It is too risky.

The Modern Benoni was risky before and after Tal. But while he was World Champion it was magic.

The one time Tal played the Modern Benoni as World champion, he lost, to Jonathan Penrose:

Robert, you're right. Rb8 and b5 is the normal way to reach the Chinese Dragon. There's a book out on the Chinese Dragon that addresses Na5 followed by a6 and b5. Sorry for the confusion (on my part). 

What book is that? 

Robert, you're right. Rb8 and b5 is the normal way to reach the Chinese Dragon. There's a book out on the Chinese Dragon that addresses Na5. Sorry for the confusion (on my part). 

The Chinese Dragon by Richard Pearson: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780882181

I only know it from some reviews and discussions of the Na5 idea here:

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/chess/YaBB.pl?num=1403103436

I have that book and he does advocate Na5 and b5 sometimes even as a pawn sacrifice in certain lines, but never does he recommend a6.

Sorry, I thought I had deleted the comment about a6. That was a mistake *I* made when I was first typing it up. I thought I'd corrected it before I hit "enter".

That Anand-Kasparov game has always baffled me. I'm quite sure Anand didn't "forget to castle" considering he's one of the most booked up players to ever play the game of chess. He obviously had some idea in mind but man Kasparov just demolished him in that one.

Danny King gives some excellent analysis of Anand-Kasparov game 13 on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQlADwuxx94

do like how the knights shine in knight a5 line

Do you mean Sicilian or the Dragon? 

I see. But you know what I mean.

"Many GMs appear to agree with Sam Shankland's opinion that the Sicilian is close to refuted at elite levels."

So, this wont apply to 99.99% of us, and i can keep on playing it! 

Interesting that they feel its closed to refuted. I honestly feel people are just tired of playing it. It got overplayed for many years. Seems to me the winds of fashion are taking a sudden turn eastward to e4.