Abstract: Assessment of rock burst risk for excavating work places in underground is the first step for rock burst control. Combined indexing method has been proved not suitable for quantity of work places with abnormal geological or mining conditions. Focusing on solving this dilemma, the present research adopted numerical methods to proceed the evaluation of rock burst risk for variable width island working face based on Du’erping Coal Mine located in Shanxi Province. This paper establishes a large-scale three-dimensional model of the working face based on the actual coal and rock conditions in the mine. It successively calculates the distribution range and degree of risk of the surrounding rock impact danger zone in three stages: the preparation stage of the working face, the two sides goaf stages, and the mining stage of the island working face, and then determines the impact risk section during the mining of the variable width island working face. The results show that the change in dimension and neighboring condition are the main factors contributing to the burst risk variation. Two main impact risk sections will appear during the mining process of this variable width island working face of Du’erping Coal Mine respectively, the variable width section of the working face and the final mining section. The impact risk prediction and anti-impact measures are proposed for the mining operation in these sections, ultimately ensuring the safe mining of the working face. The present study proves that the numerical method’s potential to evaluate burst risk for panels with special mining conditions and the feasibility to serve as supplemental method for combined indexing method.