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ANNOTATED GAME
Team match (Caro-Kann: Two Knights Variation)
littleboo (1835) vs. tomwhufc (1843)
Annotated by: tomwhufc (1200)
Chess opening: Caro-Kann (B11), two knights, 3...Bg4
littleboo (1835) vs. tomwhufc (1843)
Annotated by: tomwhufc (1200)
Chess opening: Caro-Kann (B11), two knights, 3...Bg4
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THis is a team game I played for my great team England. Before i start I would like to congratulate charleshiggie for captaining the England team and making a fun community! | ||||||
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1. e4 |
My opinions about this move are pretty well known. I think this is the best move, for the novice: this move seizes space in the centre, opens up the light squared bishop's diagonal and the queen's diagonal. | |||||
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1... c6 |
! Ok giving this move an exclamation mark is a bit arrogant but I love this defence and I believe it is the best defence to e4. For those of you who haven't come across it before, it is the Caro Kann (B10.) "According to chessgames.com the stats are like this: Number of games in database: 2093 Years covered: 1883 to 2008 Overall record: White wins 38.8% Black wins 24.1% Draws 37.1%" Heres some background history on the caro-kann from everyman chess. "The caro-kann is named after the two european masters Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann. Off the two, Caro had the slightly more distinguished playing career having played in a number of strong tournaments around the year 1900. It is fair to say that if it wasn;t for there contribution to opening theory there names would have sunk without a trace within the annals of histopry. Individually they are totally forgettable but together they have achieved great fame. As raymond keene put it, Caro and Kann has become as inseperable as Tweedledee and Tweedledum This opening is introduced by the moves 1. e4 c6 and has long been one of black's ,ajor defences to 1. e4. The idea behind 1...c6 is to simplysupport the advance 2...d5, now if white captures on d5 black will be able to recapturewith the pawn, maintaining an equal position in the centre. If plack had started 1...d5 then this would not have been posssibleand he would have to recapture with a piefe/ This (1...d5) is slightly less respectable Scandinavian Defence (otherwise known as the centre counter) In chess there are two distinct approaches to playing the oepning with black. The first is to try and negate White's advantage of moving first through careful, no nonsence play. The second, more risky strategy is to counter-attack at once, concentrating more on one's own ideas rather than what white is doing. The Caro-Kann is, with the exception of one or two sidelines, belongs firmly to the first group. it is an opening that should appeal tot hose who like a solid st | |||||
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2. Nc3 |
This is the two knights variation, I have found this has been played a lot agianst me recently. I don't know why because it is certainly not a mainline or one that is deemed very strong. I have been doing quite well against it. In the two knights variation of the caro-kann white will play Nf3 at some point in place of the usual d2-d4. 3.Nf3 isn't bad but it offers black a serious alternative to conceding the centre. | |||||
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2... d5 |
This is the thematic move in the caro kann which sets up the formation that is called the caro kann. | |||||
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3. Nf3 Bg4 |
Another reasonable alternative here is 3... g6. I prefer the more common move I played here. | |||||
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4. h3 Bxf3 |
White attacked my bishop very early because it is very risky for me to play 4... Bh5. This is because White has a very strong, agressive continuation that exploits the bishops absence from the queen side, this is 4... Bh5 5. exd5 cxd5 6. Bb5 Nc6 7. g4 Bg6 8. Ne5 Rc8 9. d4 e6 10 Qe2 and now: a) 10... Bd6 was thought to equaliseuntil white showed in a couple of recent games that he has the advantage after 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. Nxd5 Bb8 13. Nb4! b) 10... Bb4 is the old line that has been the subject of many heated theoretical battles over the yearsm After 11. h4! White usually ends up winning the bishop on g6 for a few pawns and the current view is that he gets slightly the better of an endgame, I'm not sure about this but I don;t knwo much about t endagmes! What do you think? | |||||
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5. Qxf3 |
Only a complete novice would cpture with the pawn here you'd think wouldn't you! Not so though, it was the ceertainly the view of the purist Russian soviet press when they savaged Mikhail tal for playing 5... gxf3in the third game of his match with Botvinnik in 1960. They virtually accused him of bringing the game into disrepute.Tal defended his decision on sychological grounds. The game ended in a draw but Tal won the match and became world champion silencing the critics in the end. "charleshiggie (1828) on 19-Feb-08: According to the Chess Opening Explorer database I use, they have five games on their database with 5. gxf3, four ended in draws and one with a win for black. A couple of famous games between Fischer and Petrosian from the 1959 candidates tournament reached the position after 5.Qxf3 and 5....Nf6 and a later d4 by black was played instead of 5....e6 in both cases, although on the database e6 is a much more commonly played move. One of the Fischer-Petrosian games ended in a draw and is annotated by Fischer in his book "My 60 Memorable Games" and the other ended in a win for Petrosian and is annotated by Edmar Mednis in his book "How to Beat Bobby Fischer". Both were exciting, long, hard-fought games and are worth looking up." | |||||
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5... e6 |
"charleshiggie (1828) on 19-Feb-08: In the Fischer-Petrosian games, Bobby continued with 6. d3 and 7. g3, trying to turn it into a sort of King's Indian Reversed. He also tried 7. a3 against Larsen and drew in 92 moves. (Source Edmar Mednis)" | |||||
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6. d4 |
Another major option here is the more conservative 6. d3 which I don't think is very strong but is viable. | |||||
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6... Nf6 |
I think I may have made a little mistake here as a 7. e5 could of been quite dangerous for me, althought technically it gives me a good French Defence position with my bad bishop outside the pawn chain and exchanged off. Nothing to fear here really though. | |||||
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7. exd5 |
I think this is a poor move and gives up the centre. The book move here is 7.Bd3 which is much stronger, the continuation is 7... dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nbd7 9. 0-0 Nxe4 10. Qxe4 Nf6 11.Qh4 Nd5 and play seems equal with white having a minute advantage because of the bishop pair. | |||||
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7... cxd5 |
I capture towards the centre because this is a well known maxim and it gives me more control over the centre because of an extra central pawn and half opens the c-file which proves useful later on in the game. | |||||
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8. Bb5+ |
This is an ok move, it devleops a piece and will pin my knight on c6 or d7, but it is a weak pin which can easily be repelled. Therefore I think 8.Bd3 is better because it doesn't waste time attemting this futile at best pinning maneuvre. | |||||
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8... Nc6 |
This is better than playing 8... Nbd7 because it doesn't have the potential attack on the d4 pawn which a knight on c6 will have if the pin is removed. | |||||
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9. Bg5 |
This is a standard move, Castling is now possible on both sides but I would recommend it be on the Kingside because althought the h3 chink in the pawn structure is weakening bnlacks potential minority attack on a queenside castled position aswell as the half open c file being a weakness for a queenside castled position. | |||||
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9... Be7 |
I complete the devlopment of all my minor pieces and will soon castle on the kingside. | |||||
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10. Bxc6+ |
!? This move anticipates me castling king-side, removing the pin on the c6 knight and thereby attacking the d4 pawn. This is logical however unnecessary because the bishop pair is strong in open positions which this might become and this is not the best way of anticipating and reacting to the potential threat 10.Rd1 is much better and maybe then exchanging the bishop for that knight later if deemed necessary. | |||||
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10... bxc6 |
Obviously... This move half-opens up the b-file where I can attack the b2 pawn. I can now also play a ...c5 pawn counter-attack on the centre which is very common in the Caro-Kann. | |||||
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11. O-O-O |
?! No, this is not good at all, castling on opposite sides leads a very sharp game with pawn storms on opposite flanks occur a lot. The side to get there attack in first normally wins. However I can't see white mounting a very swift pawn storm on my kingside castled position because of all the pieces blocking littleboo's pawns in. I on the other hand have an un obstructed pawn on a7 which I can put into action quicky. Why Queen can also gain attacking positions very quickly on b6 or a5 immediately and my rooks when connected will make a powerful battery on the b-file. To conclude the best move here is 11. 0-0 | |||||
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11... O-O |
! From what I explained earlier this is a good move! Perhaps i could of played 11... Rb8 first though. | |||||
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