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The Panov Botvinnik attack has a uniquely important place in chess lore. After Capablanca adopted the Caro Kann, it assumed a status as the solid way for Black to escape attacking efforts of e4 players. No more gambits or attacks, just simple solid play in the center. This was the last nail in the coffin of the "Romantic" age of chess. Panov was a Soviet master and theoretician, who took a different view of this situation and decided to test Black's mettle with the direct action of 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4. Botvinnik picked up on this and quickly formed it into a most dangerous weapon. In the decades that have followed the Panov-Botvinnik Attack has remained the choice of determined king pawn players, despite the efforts of GM's and World Champions alike. The past 30 years has seen something of an alteration in direction for the Panov-Botvinnik. Defending the Black side has gone in three directions; (1) simple play in the center aiming at a position with an isolated White queen's pawn, (2) fianchettoing the black king bishop with active piece play and sometimes a gambit as aim, and finally (3) a defense predicated on simple development and emphasizing the extra center pawn. All three of these directions have been heavily analyzed This book is a compendium of much of that analysis written by a former world champion and one of the leading Soviet player/theoreticians of the 80's. There are two things I feel I should mention here, one is an observation and the other is a viewpoint. First, playing the Panov-Botvinnik is not simply playing one opening. So many of the lines can transpose into or out of variations from other openings that it is nearly impossible to keep track. This seems too much of an extra effort until it becomes apparent that the things you are learning from this book about the Panov-Botvinnik actually lie at the heart of many tabiyas and therefore are worth the effort. I will talk a bit more about this later. The second thing, a viewpoint of mine. In the Orthodox Queen's Gambit Declined, players of the black pieces are instructed that getting the move ...c5 played will be the clear road to equality because of the potential liquidation in the center. In the Panov-Botvinnik, Black is afforded the luxury of already exchanging the c-pawn for White's e-pawn, yet he still has a struggle ahead. Why is that? This suggests to me that there is some factor in the arrangement of White's pieces, compared between the QGD and the Panov-Botvinnik, which enhances Black's potential after a possible exchange. Very curious. The book starts off looking at the more active Black defences. I suspect that these sections were written by Podgaets. Beginning with 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3, Black's three options are spelled by the 5th move: 5...Nc6, 5...g6 or 5...e6. A fourth, little used, alternative (5...Be6) is explored in the first chapter and receives quite a good endorsement. The 5...Nc6 lines are unique to the Caro Kann for a couple of reasons. First, they don't get transposed to from other openings and second they offer Black some more active possibilities. The best known line in this section is the "endgame" line 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qb3 Bxf3 9.gxf3 e6 10.Qxb7 Nxd4 11.Bb5+ Nxb5 12.Qc6+ which came to attention in a 1960 game between Fischer and Euwe. Two chapters are assigned to 5...Nc6, the first chapter looks at 6.Nf3 and the second chapter deals with the much more active 6. Bg5. These lines are quite interesting and feature numerous aspects of chess: there are gambit lines for each side, lines that feature sharp play for both sides, long theoretical debates as well as the endgame variation mentioned. A player of the White pieces looking to take up the Panov-Botvinnik will do well to come to some conclusions in these chapters, while a Black proponent will do well to be fully acquainted with the lines as they can be forcing and potentially very profitable. One of the curious aspects of the Panov-Botvinnik attack is the 5... g6 line. The reason I say curious, is the way the line is judged. A previous book on the Panov-Botvinnik stated that the line is untenable for Black and suggested that the analysis in that book was simply for the White side, going so far as to suggest there is a simple formula to gain a large advantage. The current book is less skeptical for the Black side, but still comes to the conclusion that it isn't to be recommended. This is all fine and good, but I know of at least two GM's who defend the 5...g6 line with great confidence! What can we make of this? Perhaps it is a stylistic question or just the fact that some players get extremely attached to their favorite lines. What I can say about the work in this book on 5...g6 is that the analysis seems fair to either side, the conclusions seem very reasonable and the effort given to the line wasn't in any way inferior to that given the other sections. Putting my two cents in, I would say that I have scored 2½ out of 3 on the White side and 1 out of 1 on the Black! Chapters 4, 5 and 6 examine the most solid and common defence 6...e6. Why do I say these are so common? The positions that arise actually arise from a number of different openings such as the Semi-Tarrasch line of the Queen's Gambit, the Nimzo Indian or even the c3 Sicilian. In my experience the heart of these lines had been the isolated Queen's Pawn position that is reached and I found that the analysis provided on that subject very worthwhile. I was also very excited to find new analysis on the lines based around a White strategy of advancing the queenside pawns c4-c5 and b4/a4. While the IQP positions have been worked out to the point of having whole volumes dedicated to them, the queenside majority strategy has been neglected by most theory. With my enthusiasm for this area of material comes a bit of a disappointment in the analysis of the lines with Bb4. It is pretty common knowledge that the position after 5... e6 6.Nf3 Bb4 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 has arisen far more often from the Nimzo Indian and a whole line with 9... b6 bears the name of co-author Karpov. So, I was somewhat surprised when the subject was passed over and only 7... dxc4 8. Bxc4 Qc7 was given any treatment. Perhaps this was a decision based on space limitations or centered around opening nomenclature, but it felt like some of the subject was neglected. With 6... Be7 (instead of Bb4) Black enters a line very common to the QGD. This portion of the book seems extremely well done and up to date, changing the view of a couple of positions from what I had previously been aware of. This is very good stuff. At the end of the book there is an "appendix" which consists of the Steiner System 1. e4 c6 2.c4. This easily contains the most number of possible openings to be transposed to or from. They include: Old Indian, Kings Indian, English Opening, French Defense, Marshall Gambit in the Semi Slav, Scandinavian defense, the Latvian Gambit as well as the regular Panov-Botvinnik lines. Though this line has been popular in clubs and local tournaments for three decades, it hasn't received the analytical treatment of the other lines in the Panov-Botvinnik proper. I found this part of the book a bit erratic as the "main" lines of the variation 1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Qa4+ or 5.Bb5+ was mentioned. However, I can't complain about this section as it seemed a bit of a bonus. The final section contains 12 annotated games from 2004 - 2005. These games are all played by top-tier players and work well to get a feel for the variation. I can't say this book is perfect, but I
don't know if any book is. There are a couple of deficiencies that stuck
out to me, which I already mentioned. If it wasn't for the obvious effort
plus the value of the named authors, I would have been more concerned. This
book will be a good tool for any player who is comfortable playing the Caro
Kann and willing to work out some of the details for themselves. The price
limits my enthusiasm for the book as a reference to White players, but maybe
if more players start nudging the c-pawn one square it will become a must
buy for White!
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