CARO-KANN DEFENCE: PANOV ATTACK
Authors: Karpov and Podgaets
Batsford (2006)
276 pages
$22.95

Reviewed by John Donaldson

The publication of CARO-KANN DEFENCE: PANOV ATTACK by Anatoly Karpov and Mikhail Podgaets fills a gap in the chess literature. Excepting EASY GUIDE TO THE PANOV-BOTVINNIK ATTACK written by Jacob Aagaard in 1998, I know of no other dedicated books on the subject. One could actually make a strong argument that the Caro-Kann as a whole is not well covered in the chess literature compared to many other answers to 1.e4. This book by Karpov and Podgaet will be a major step towards addressing this imbalance because it not only covers the variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 (known in many parts of the word as the Panov-Botvinnik Attack but what Karpov and Podgaets call the Panov Attack) but also its cousin 1.e4 c6 2.c4 -- The Steiner Attack, named for its originator the Hungarian-Australian GM Lajos Steiner.
 
The Panov-Botvinnik Attack has to rank as one of the most transpositional openings in chess. Aside from the pure P-B positions arising from 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 and 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 and 6.Nf3 Bg4 there is the Isolated Queen Pawn tabiya (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd3 [8.Bc4 is also covered] 8...Nc6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Re1 Nf6 11.a3 b6 that can come from a variety of openings including the Queen's Gambit, English, Sicilian (2.c3) and Scandinavian. Also to be found are close kin via the Nimzo-Indian transposition (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Bb4 7.Bd3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 0-0 9.0-0). Here Black finds himself with an extra move in the tabiya after 9...Nc6 10.a3 Be7 11.Bd3 b6 12.Re1 Bb7 having spent only two two moves on ...Bb4-e7 while White spent three on Bd3-c4-d3. All these variations are extensively covered with 60 pages on the IQP setups alone.
 
Particularly thorough is the coverage of 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd3 Nc6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Re1 Nf6 11.a3 b6 12.Bc2 Ba6 (stopping White's Qd3) which receives 6 pages of detailed examination. The authors believe that in the final analysis both 12...Ba6 and 12...Bb7 are fully playable for Black. Karpov and Podgaets do not have such kind words for GM Max Dlugy's old favorite 10...Bf6 11.Be4 Qd6, a line he employed with great success in the 1980s. They believe 12.h4, 12.Qd3 and 12.Bc3 all pose problems.
 
The bulk of CARO-KANN DEFENCE: PANOV ATTACK is devoted to the Panov-Botvinnik -- the first 225 pages, but there is an interesting section on the Steiner Attack. This covers not only 2...d5 after 1.e4 c6 2.c4 but also 2...e5 and 2...e6. Note after 2...d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 in the theoretical section of the Steiner the only move considered is 4...Qxd5. You will however find coverage of 4...Nf6 in the annotated game section at the end of the book (game 11) and also via transposition in Chapter Three of the Panov-Botvinnik (4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6).
 
One little sideline that was just touched upon was 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bf5. I remember seeing the Seattle Master Viktors Pupols play this variation and IM Nikolay Minev analyzed it in an article in the January 1988 issue of Northwest Chess. Karpov and Podgaets quote an analysis by Nenarokov starting with 7.c5 as giving White a slight positional advantage, but the first player can definitely aim for more! A few months ago I visited former U.S. Champion John Grefe in the hospital and while looking at some chess he showed me his first opening novelty, cooked up in the early 1960s while he was still a teenager living in Hoboken, New Jersey. John knew he was to face the late American Master Ariel Mengarini who had enjoyed several successes with 6...Bf5. Grefe-Mengarini went 6...Bf5 7.Qb3 Na5 8.Qb5+ Bd7 9.cxd5!. Neither Mengarini nor Hanisch (in Teschke-Hanisch, Germany 2002) captured the Queen and both lost quickly. John's analysis was 9...Bxb5 10.Bxb5+ Nd7 11.Ne5 Qb6 12.Bxd7+ (12.Nxd7 leaves White up a pawn but such prosaic play was never John's style) 12...Kd8 13.Ba4! with fantastic compensation for the Queen, vindicated by Fritz 10 over 40 years later.
 
CARO-KANN DEFENCE: PANOV ATTACK is ably translated by Jimmy Adams and features detailed opening indexes after each chapter. If you play either side of the Panov-Botvinnik or Steiner variation or often reach the various IQP positions covered you must have this book!

Click to buy (or get more information about) CARO-KANN DEFENCE: PANOV ATTACK

Click to buy (or get more information about) the other wonderful book on the Caro-Kann by Karpov and Podgaets CARO-KANN DEFENCE: ADVANCE VARIATION and GAMBIT SYSTEM