I'm pretty stubborn about the openings I play and don't change them lightly. But as much fun as the Caveman Caro Kann has been, I definitely haven't been getting everything I could out of it. I think the early exchange of light squared bishops was my problem.
Here, we end up in kind of a murky area of the rules. Tex and I agreed not to use opening books, and I don't intend to. On the other hand, I have been working on improving in this opening for my overall play, and that has been heavily influenced by this article:
So the conclusion I've come to is that I can continue to study that article in my study time, but I won't look at it directly before selecting my move in this game. Seems reasonable.
So that line I gave earlier is out and replaced with 5. Bg5. There's a really fun rook sac in that line and generally white presses for more of an advantage than just Bd3.
As expected, Kyle plays the advance variation. Coincidentally, I've faced the advance several times in the past few weeks in OTB play so I've been forced to get better at it. I've still got a looooooooong way to go, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this game holds and hopefully learning a few things.
This is the line I thought he'd most likely play, which is good because there should be some interesting play in the middle game.
4...h5 is pretty much forced here. Before I was too familiar with the line I'd play 4...h6, similar to black's idea in the main line, but playing ...h6 in this line gets black rolled on the kingside. Black can't allow white to get that much space, considering there is already a pawn on e5.
Had a longer post outlining the possibilities from here but it got eaten by the internet monster.
Basically, if black plays anything but Qb6, then it becomes a positional fight and probably both sides castle long. If Qb6, then it becomes an lol position reminscent of 19th century king's gambit crap, with white saccing exchanges and rooks like it's suicide.
I'm not exactly sure what the book move is after 5.Bg5. I've never faced this exact line, only similar lines with a later Bg5. So, time to put on the thinking cap.
At first glance, 5...Qb6 seems like the most natural move. It attacks the undefended b-pawn and most importantly removes the pin on the e-pawn, which clearly has to move for black to develop. In a 5-minute blitz game, I'd play 5...Qb6 without hesitating. But I've been burned by natural looking opening moves before, and given my tendency to play on intuition without calculating deeply, I need to look at some concrete lines here.
Looking deeper on 5...Qb6, it looks to me like 6.b3 is forced. White can't try to sac the b2 pawn as a poisoned pawn because he is unable to develop quickly enough to take advantage of the lead in development with the closed center.
I think black is doing fine after something like 5...Qb6 6.b3 e6 7.Nf3 (7.Nh3 is interesting) and I'm trying to figure out how to best develop the kingside pieces for black in that position. I'll see what white actually plays and react accordingly. 5...Qb6 looks good to me here.
***EDIT*** Just after I posted this, I was doing some chores and still thinking about the position. It occurred to me that white doesn't have to play 6.b3 and can play 6.Bd3, which looks like a much better choice. On that move I intend to play 6...Bxd3 7.Qxd3 and then 7...e6. On 7...Qxb2 I can't calculate it all the way out (I tried, not being lazy) but intuitively it feels like black is trying for too much after 8.e6. We'll see how the game develops.
Not looking at spoilers is killing me. This is torture. Everyone that plays these games says that, but good grief it's true when you're actually in that position.
This is like juggling chain saws. If I remember the theory right and he plays well, I get a small advantage. If I remember the theory right and he makes a mistake, I blow him up. If I botch the theory, I get blown up myself..
***EDIT*** Just after I posted this, I was doing some chores and still thinking about the position. It occurred to me that white doesn't have to play 6.b3 and can play 6.Bd3, which looks like a much better choice.
Tex is good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KyleJRM82
This is like juggling chain saws. If I remember the theory right and he plays well, I get a small advantage. If I remember the theory right and he makes a mistake, I blow him up. If I botch the theory, I get blown up myself.
Whew, glad I had the thought at the last second. I really need to work on seeing things from my opponent's point of view. I'm awful at that, major hole in my game.
Anyway, I don't even want to try to trust my calculation and get into the quagmire that is 6...Qxb2 7.Bxf5 Qxa1. No thanks. Black has to be worse there. I'll just capture and play 7...e6.
Actually I can, since I had a look at this line ~3 weeks ago: It's not _so_ bad but White gets a good long term initiative and it looked really awkward to defend. Some moves onwards Houdini assessed it = (not 0.00) despite White being down an exchange and two pawns without any immediate threats. Tex is so far going with the best equalizer, his next moves should be e6 and Qa6. EDIT: ehmm I was talking about 6.-Qxb2 7.Bxf5 Qxa1 8.e6
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