|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Chessville
Advertise to Single insert:
|
The Caro-Kann has been my main defense against 1.e4 for about ten years now, but I have to be honest – I was thinking of giving it up. It served me well as I was coming up the ranks, but as I started to come up against stronger opponents, I started feeling that it was a bit too passive and much easier for White to play than it was for Black. I dabbled a bit in the Sicilian and the Open Games for a while, but neither made me totally happy, so I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I recalled some advice from Steve Gidden’s How to Build Your Chess Opening Repertoire. First, he points out that no opening is one-dimensionally “passive” or “active,” “aggressive” or “positional” – all openings have a variety of lines for either player to steer the game one way or the other. Second, he argues that radically changing your opening repertoire is almost always a mistake – you’re giving up all that accumulated knowledge and experience and essentially starting from square one, so it’s better simply to adjust the specific lines within the opening you already play. If this advice is correct (and it seems sound enough to me), then my problem wasn’t going to be solved by abandoning the Caro-Kann for something else, but rather by revitalizing my approach to the Caro-Kann. Lucky for me, Jovanka Houska has written an excellent Caro-Kann repertoire book that is allowing me to do just that. A quick glance through the book would tell most club players all they need to know. The text is an excellent mix of explanation and theory. For the latter, there’s more than enough material here to cover almost anything that a Caro-Kann player could reasonably expect to encounter, whether playing over-the-board or correspondence-style. For the former, the explanations are thorough and detailed, and written at a level that would be helpful for lower class players and those just taking up the Caro-Kann for the first time, as well as more experienced Caro-Kann players, such as myself – some of it was familiar ground, but there were quite a few instructional points that I found downright eye-opening. However, what most attracts me to this book is the choice of repertoire lines, so let’s take a look at some of them. First, IM Houska recommends the classical main line (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5) instead of the Smyslov / Karpov approach (4…Nd7). The Karpov approach is favored by some other authors, but I’ve always thought that the classical approach is the way to go – it’s simpler to learn, much more straightforward strategically, and more in the theme of the Caro-Kann (one point of which is to get that Bishop out there!) Once settling on the classical main line, Black next has to choose whether to take a queenside or kingside castling approach, and IM Houska recommends the latter – a choice with which I heartily agree. It had been thought for some time that queenside castling was the only safe way for Black to play in several lines, but the result is rather passive positions for Black – with that King over on the queenside, Black can’t get his own queenside operations (especially with queenside pawn advances) going as easily, and so Black is left fighting for a draw. Recent analysis shows that Black can survive the extra risk of castling kingside, which then gives Black more active queenside (or in some cases, central) counter-play, comparable to active lines of the French or the Sicilian. There are also a variety of sidelines White can choose, and I like IM Houska’s choices of Black response as well. I’ll mention just a couple of examples here. If White transposes into the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.f3), Houska recommends accepting (4…fxe3!) and shows that Black is doing just fine, in spite of what the BDG fanatics says. Against the 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Nc5 sideline, Houska recommends the simple 5…b6 – Black could try the sharp 5…Nd7!?, but I’m not convinced that pawn sacrifice is worth it, especially since the straightforward 5…b6 is easy enough for the experienced Caro-Kann player to play, and the so-called weakness of c6 hardly amounts to much. Against 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Bc4 e6 7.N1e2, Houska recommends 7…Nf6. I personally found this interesting. I had been playing 7…Bd6, in order to prevent (or minimize the impact of) White’s eventual f-pawn advance, but the resulting positions find Black under some pressure. Houska’s 7…Nf6 is more active (in the spirit of her general approach to the Caro-Kann), and gives Black much better chances than 7…Bd6. Moving on to the Panov-Botvinnik Attack (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4), Houska recommends 4…Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6. Previously, I had been playing the more traditional 5…e6, which is fine, but a bit passive – it even looks a bit like Queen’s Gambit Declined! The 5…Nc6 lines are more active (though also a bit riskier – these things generally go hand-in-hand) and generally allow Black to play the light-squared bishop outside of the pawn chain (unlike, obviously, 5…e6) in the thematic Caro-Kann way. The chapters on the Advance variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5) were of most interest to me. Gone are the days when this variation was thought to be a poor cousin to the French Advance. The Caro-Kann Advance is arguably one of White’s best ways to secure an advantage. Although, unlike the French, the light-squared bishop can be developed outside the pawn chain, it is more often than not simply a target for a White kingside pawn storm, and the pawn on e5 deprives Black’s kingside knight of its natural home on f6, making the kingside difficult to develop. Furthermore, the Advance is a popular variation, not only at the professional level, but also at the club level. To be frank, it was the Advance that made me consider giving up the Caro-Kann entirely – I was constantly finding myself in difficult positions with no counter-play. IM Houska offers a nice solution: play 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5!? This is a relatively new way for Black to approach the Advance. At first glance, it might look like a patzer’s move. After all, the point of playing the Caro-Kann rather than the French is to develop that light-squared bishop, isn’t it? And yet 3…c5 blocks it! And chances are, you’ll just end up transposing into the French Advance, with a tempo less! So what’s the point?! Things aren’t so simple, however. The French Advance lines that arise are relatively innocuous, and the extra tempo doesn’t do White much good. As far as that light-squared bishop, it’s probably safer inside the pawn-chain, and its absence from the kingside makes White’s kingside pawn storm much less effective. Honestly, the 3…c5 lines aren’t as tested as the traditional Advance lines, but Houska makes the case that Black can hold his or her own, and at the very least, Black will probably know these lines better than White, giving Black the better practical chances.
Finally, IM
Houska rounds up the less common lines such as the Fantasy variation, the
Two Knights, the King’s Indian Attack, etc., providing plenty of guidance
for Black and providing a complete repertoire. My concluding thoughts are
that Houska has provided an excellent and much needed repertoire for the
Caro-Kann player, and I would recommend it to anyone – including myself!
I’m now using this book as my main guide to the Caro-Kann, and have returned
to the opening with renewed enthusiasm, thanks to Houska – what more could
you ask for? Copyright 2007 S. Evan Kreider and Chessville. Used with permission.
|
The
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
In
2006 Jovanka Houska won the English Chess Federation
Player of the Year award, the first time a female chess player had
received this prestigious recognition. Highlights of her career so far
include winning the European Girls Junior Championship, representing
the English team at numerous Chess Olympiads and qualifying for the
2006 Women’s World Championship. She is a regular writer for both
CHESS and ChessMoves.
