Win with the Caro-Kann (Sverre's Chess Openings)

240 Pages·2021·14.41 MB·english

by  Sverre Johnsen

Win with the Caro-Kann
Sverre Johnsen and Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen

A choice of counterattacking options from a sound base
Contents
Symbols
Conventions
Bibliography
Preface by
Sverre
Introduction

1: Classical: Korchnoi Variation Lesson
1: Introduction Lesson 2:
Forgacs’s 6 Bc4 Lesson 3:
Introduction to the Main Line Lesson 4:
Introduction to the Hansen Variation Lesson
5: Hansen Variation: Lines with 0-0-0

2: Classical: Capablanca
Variation Lesson 6: Rare Fifth
Moves Lesson 7: Rare Sixth Moves
Lesson 8: Rare Seventh Moves
Lesson 9: Bareev Introduction and Campora Hybrid 8
h5 Lesson 10: Introduction to the Bareev Main Line
Lesson 11: Bareev Main Line: Menchik’s Line
Lesson 12: Bareev Main Line: 11...Ngf6

3: Advance Variation
Lesson 13: Arkell/Khenkin Introduction
Lesson 14: Arkell/Khenkin 4 dxc5 e6 Introduction and 5
Nf3 Lesson 15: Arkell/Khenkin 5 Be3 and Rare 5th Moves
Lesson 16: Arkell/Khenkin Introduction to 5 a3
Lesson 17: Arkell/Khenkin Main Battleground
Lesson 18: Experimental Line: Johnsen Variation (3...Qc7)

4: Exchange Variation and Panov Attack
Lesson 19: Exchange: Introduction to the Carls Variation
Lesson 20: Classical Exchange Main Line 6 Ne2
Lesson 21: Panov Attack: Introduction and 5 Nf3 g6
Lesson 22: Panov Attack Euwe System: 6 cxd5 and Other
Moves Lesson 23: Panov Attack Euwe System: 6
Qb3 Lesson 24: Panov Attack: Miles’s 4...dxc4

5: Early Deviations
Lesson 25: Maroczy’s 3 f3 and Rare Third Moves
Lesson 26: 2 Nc3 and Introduction to the Two
Knights
Lesson 27: Two Knights Main Line: 3...Bg4
Lesson 28: Steiner Variation (2 c4)
Lesson 29: King’s Indian Attack
Lesson 30: Rare Second Moves

Index of Variations

Copyright Information
About the Authors
About Gambit Publications
About Gambit Chess
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Symbols
+ check
++ double check
# checkmate
!! brilliant move
! good move
!? interesting move
?! dubious move
? bad move
?? blunder
+– White is winning
+/– White is much better
+= White is slightly better
= the game is equal
=+ Black is slightly better
–/+ Black is much better
–+ Black is winning
Ch championship
tt team event
corr. correspondence game
1-0 the game ends in a win for White
½-½ the game ends in a draw
0-1 the game ends in a win for Black
(n) nth match game
(D) see next diagram
Conventions
For convenience, and in order to avoid trivial repetitions, we have
followed these conventions:

At the start of the ‘Magnifiers’ in each Lesson, there is a brief
summary of what is covered in each one. When a move appears in
brackets, this means that alternatives to that move are also
examined.
In general we have only attributed analysis where we have been
confident that an author gives his own analysis and is not just
quoting older, unattributed analysis.
Analyses and discoveries by our editor have only been attributed
in a few cases where the analysis provided by far exceeded an
editor’s normal duties.
Bibliography

Main Sources

The Caro-Kann Revisited; F.Rambaldi; Thinkers Publishing 2020

Bologan’s Caro-Kann; V.Bologan; New in Chess 2018

A Practical Black Repertoire with d5, c6. Volume 2; A.Kornev; Chess
Stars 2017

The Caro-Kann Defense: Classical Variation; A.Karpov,
M.Podgaets; Russian Chess House 2016

Opening Repertoire: The Caro-Kann; J.Houska; Everyman Chess 2015

Other Repertoire Books for Black

Grandmaster Repertoire 7: The Caro-Kann; L.Schandorff; Quality
Chess 2010

Smerdon’s Scandinavian; D.Smerdon; Everyman Chess 2015

Repertoire Books for White and Various

Playing 1 e4: Caro-Kann, 1...e5 & Minor Lines; J.Shaw; Quality Chess 2016

How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire; S.Giddins;
Gambit Publications 2003

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit; C.Scheerer; Everyman Chess 2011
Preface by Sverre
I have for a long time had an ambition to complement the books Win with
the London System and Win with the Stonewall Dutch with a book for
Black against 1 e4. Having finally concluded that the Caro-Kann must be
the right opening to complete the trilogy, I contacted my friend Torbjørn
Ringdal Hansen and asked if he would like to co-author a book based on
the Hansen Variation in the Caro-Kann. “You mean the ...h5 line in the
Korchnoi Variation?”, he asked modestly.

Black to play

Modesty can go too far, and in my opinion there is no doubt that this is the
Hansen Variation. While Torbjørn wasn’t the first to play 9...h5 in the
diagram position and isn’t the strongest GM to adopt it, he is undoubtedly
the top authority on this fashionable line. Getting Torbjørn on the team was
a scoop on a par with getting Vlatko Kovačević for the London book and
Ivar Bern for the Stonewall. For a repertoire book it was also a lucky strike
that Torbjørn plays the 3...c5 variation against the Advance Variation,
saving a lot of space compared to 3...Bf5.
Space considerations are important, as the tournament scene has
changed a lot lately. Thanks to huge databases and easily available super
chess engines, today it’s easier and more common to prepare for a game
than ever. The flip side of this is the importance of being unpredictable so
that you face your opponent’s actual skills rather than the analysis of
Stockfish. One of our ambitions when starting out with this project was to
offer some choice against all of White’s major systems – preferably one
well-established main line and one rarer but playable sideline. Overall we
believe we succeeded in this, even if some challenges proved tougher
than expected.

Most lessons have been written by one of us and then reviewed by the
other. If you are curious about the author of a particular lesson, you will find
it right at the beginning. “By: TRH” means that this lesson was mainly
written by Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen and that ‘I’ means him. “By: SJ” means
that this lesson was mainly written by Sverre Johnsen and that ‘I’ means
him.

This book is structured around 30 Model Games. If you read the
introductions and play through these games, you will already know a lot
about the Caro- Kann. Actually, if you are below master level, you should
be ready to play the Caro-Kann with some confidence against opponents of
your own strength. You may not be theoretically well prepared, but you will
have the basics in place. One of the strengths of the Caro-Kann is its
resilience.
Playing Black is never easy, but if there is an opening where you can
survive with common sense and a general understanding of the strategy,
it’s probably the Caro-Kann.

So as not to clutter the text too much, we have separated the
supplementary details and minor lines into what we have called Theory
Magnifiers at the end of each lesson. An ambitious player will want to study
this material as a part of his general preparation. However, for most
readers we expect them to be mostly for looking up a line after it occurs in
one of their games. In theory that might seem the wrong order, but you may
be surprised how quickly you’ll cover the basics even with this approach.
And if you want to speed it up tenfold, you should do the same with your
Internet blitz games.

Here and there throughout the book, you will find a few questions in
italics. These are questions that we imagine some of our less
experienced readers might ask and are followed by a more than usually