CARO-KANN DEFENSE: Advance Variation and Gambit System
Authors: Anatoly Karpov and Mikhail Podgaets
284 pages
$22.95
Batsford Chess (2006)

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

After giving CARO-KANN DEFENCE: Panov Attack by Karpov and Podgaets top marks, I was extremely happy to receive this companion volume. Like the first, the analysis is detailed and has nice amounts of explanatory prose. In general, books by Russian authors suffer from somewhat sketchy English, but this is not the case here. Jimmy Adams, the translator, did a magnificent job, and the prose is not only technically flawless, but also filled with humor and energy.

CARO-KANN DEFENSE: Advance Variation and Gambit System covers one sideline, 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3, and what has turned into White's most dangerous and popular weapon against the Caro-Kann, 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5. As in the previous book on the Panov Attack, the authors surprised me by showing such a range of analysis and ideas that it made me realize just how pathetic my vintage 1996 opening theory is!

This became apparent in the 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 system, which never worried me but does have a big time supporter in the world-class grandmaster Mickey Adams. At first matters were as I remembered them. They verified that 3...dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 exd4? was still a moronic capture, and that 5...Be6 was completely viable. What I didn't know was that 5...Bg4!?, which sacrifices a pawn for a serious initiative, is a move that needs to be taken very seriously.

Even more surprising was the analysis of 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 e5!?, which strives to take advantage of the weakness created by the fishy 3.f3. As with 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4, Black's 3...e5!? plays to blow White off the board by tossing material in favor of rapid development.

This all seems a bit depressing for White, but their coverage of 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 g6!? (a favorite of Yasser Seirawan) is even more disheartening for the first player. Follow-ups to 3...g6 of ...Qb6 and/or ...e5 seems to assure Black of a full share of the chances.

Naturally, my old favorite 3...e6 is still quite playable, but these other possibilities are so juicy that I would be hard pressed not to pick one of them as my 3.f3 gambit killer.

All this is very interesting, but people buying this book would most likely do so to find out how to meet the annoying 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5. Indeed, everyone seems to be playing this as White, and strong Caro-Kann players are constantly getting wiped off the map. Black has two serious options: 3...c5 and 3...Bf5.

As usual, the analysis of both these lines is serious and detailed. The authors feel that 3...c5 (given thirty pages) is still alive, while 3...Bf5 earns 220 pages of soul-searing analysis! Though some lines demand quite a bit of memorization, others enrich the Caro-Kann player via simple observations. A good example is the popular line 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.c4, which got a new lease on life thanks to the extremely creative grandmaster Alexander Morozevich. Karpov and Podgaets start that section by telling us how the once well thought of line 4...e6 5.Nc3 dxc4 is now considered dubious thanks to a plan cooked up by Morozevich: 6.Bxc4 Nd7 7.Nge2 Nb6 8.Bb3 Ne7 9.0-0 Qd7 10.Nf4! Here it is! The idea is to trade pieces on d5 leaving Black with little to crow about, while White would enjoy a safe space advantage. This is illustrated by the game Morozevich-Sasikiran, Moscow 2001: 10...h6 11.Be3 Bh7 12.Rc1 Ned5 13.Ncxd5 Nxd5 14.Nxd5 exd5 15.Bd2 Be7 16.Rc3 Bf5 17.Bc2 h5 18.Bxf5 Qxf5 19.Qb3 Qd7 20.f4 and White's kingside pawn roller led to an eventually Black defeat. This kind of information sets the tone of the chapter since students of the Caro-Kann learn the dangers they face and, as a result, appreciate other plans that avoid this kind of debacle.

I should add that I didn't see any examples past 2004. Nor was there a bibliography that might tell me exactly when these books were first written. So it seems we're getting fed theory from 2004, along with quite a bit of original analysis and insight. This means that in the case of super-topical lines like 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5, it's imperative that the advanced student update the lines that interest him with games from the last two years.

As was the case with CARO-KANN DEFENCE: Panov Attack, CARO-KANN DEFENSE: Advance Variation and Gambit System is a must buy for players 1800 right up to grandmaster that play the Caro-Kann for Black, or use the advance variation for White when facing the Caro.

These two books are offer the best material ever written on this opening and are indispensable tools for Caro-Kann advocates.

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