Tex is good.

I'm not sure Kyle knows what chain saws are.

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.

obviously i have no idea of the Caro but can anyone enlighten me why 7. Qxd3 Qxb2 8. e6 is so bad for black?

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

that makes more sense. So what is white supposed to play after 7. Qxd3 Qxb2?

Nge2 looks interesting to me, if Qxa1 then maybe Qb3 and black queen is in trouble I think?

Rooooook saaaaaccccc!

I want to play this line in an OTB tournament game so badly. Some schlub's going to be playing me in the state Class C championships or something and get socked with this line.

IIRC, the mainline from here is
7. Qxd3 Qxb2
8. e6 fxe6
9. Nf3

And now when black takes the rook in the corner, white plays Qb3 and the black queen is out of play. Eventually, white can castle, move the knight and get the queen for a rook (in addition to the rook that was already sac'd). In the meantime, the initiative is solidly in white's favor.

I'm assuming as a Caro-Kann player he's familiar with all this. The longer he plays the mainline the better it is for me. Black has the option at almost any point to play something inferior but solid and concede a generic advantage to white and force me to actually play chess with him.

As mentioned in my previous note, I have pretty much zero desire to get into any Qxb2 business. I can't calculate it all out but intuitively it feels like black needs to start developing. Plus, I know Kyle likes attacking games much more than placid positional encounters, so I think Qxb2 stuff would be more to his liking. Maybe I can bore him to death

Is Black plan to organise NG8-->NE7-->NF5? I think that would be a nice post for a knight with long term pressure on d5 with his c-pawn.
fwiw I would have at least spent a day or two trying to calculate some lines with qxb2

Imo, White's position is already slightly worse. I don't see any real active plan. All he can do is try to defend his weak pawn structure. This is not the kind of position White should be aiming for in the Caro Kann.

And after my last post I check the database and see that this has been played for White by quite a few good players. So obviously there's something I don't understand here....

Lots of comments. I hope this means the game is interesting. e4, folks. Learn it, live it, love it.

Okay, well, now I have to actually play chess with him, because we are out of the main theory.

White's advantages: 3 v. 1 developed piece advantage after his upcoming move, kingside space

Black's advantages: Plenty of weak pawns to attack, including an immediate attack on b2. Good vs. bad bishop long-term.

White has to play actively and find a chance to turn his dynamic advantage into something static before black can fully develop.

My queenside knight is clearly going to c3. My kingside knight would like to go to e2 to g3 and keep an eye on f5 and h5. The problem with that comes when black puts pressure on d4. When that happens, the knight on e2 gets stuck on e2 to babysit d4, and now white's position is awkward. f5 remains an unchallenged outpost, the e2 and c3 knights are in each other's way, and the e2 knight blocks the e-file. Someday I'd like to play f4-f5-f6, etc. to break into black's position on the kingside, but in my experience these games almost never end up there unless black is really passive.

But that's a problem for the future. Right now, I don't see how white can seriously consider anything other than Nc3, which addresses the immediately Qxb2 threat. Black's replies can include Nd7, Ne7, Be7 and c5.

The knight moves aren't a problem, white just continues with his plan. Be7 doesn't really help black because it blocks his knight really needs that square. c5 is annoying, but at least it keeps the position unbalanced. Black presses the weak d4 square and white keeps his development advantage.

I checked all the coordinates in this post three times, and I bet half of them are still wrong.

Side note. I had one really interesting game from this opening where I eventually played f4 in the early middlegame after both sides had castled long, with my bishop still on g5 with the intent of sacrificing the bishop for two pawns, the long-term compensation of kingside connected passed pawns, more coordinated pieces.

I didn't convert the game, but the computer confirmed that it was a solid advantage after the sac and I consider it one of the ballerest moves I've ever made.

it's the space, stupid space advantages can compensate a lot. For example, take the bishops. Black's is officially the good one but it doesn't really have a lot of squares.

Yeah for sure. I was comparing it to the variation with an early Bd3 (without h4/h5), which is supposed to be inferior, but here the Bg5 is a really good piece, preventing Black from developing his game.

Lots of possibilities here. A few candidate moves immediately jump out and need to be considered. Here's what I'm thinking.

Any move needs to start with an analysis of white's 8.Nc3. I'm not an expert on the Caro by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. But from my experience, I'm too big of a fan of this move here. My best guess is he played it to rule out 8...Qxb2 since he'd play 9.Rb1. But in these types of positions, I think white needs to put the knight on d2 to be able to play c3 and support the center, or c4 if black plays passively. If black can play c5 and capture on d4 and white can't recapture with the c-pawn, I like black in that type of pawn structure. Black would have the open c-file to work with and the pawn on e5 would be more of a liability than a strength, at least as far as I can tell.

I struggle in types of positions like this. I think there are a few ideas black could employ but I'm really having trouble picking one. I'm not quite sure how to proceed when black has a couple of reasonable looking things to do. I can calculate 4 or 5 moves in each line but they all look pretty ok to me in the end. In types of positions like this, I feel like I'll play what I consider to be an alright plan, only to realize in 15 moves that I'm strategically worse or something. If anyone can interpret my incoherent rambling and has some thoughts, I'd love to check them out in the spoilers later. Anyway, enough negative stuff, the game must go on...

I've never played this exact position, but in an analogous position with an early Bd3 (no Bg5) black plays ...Qa5+ and ...Qa6 with the white queen on d3. This position looks similar and I think the motif holds true. White's queen is nicely posted and forcing the exchange takes away virtually all of what's left of white's attacking potential. Plus it helps black develop and untangle. I'm thinking something like 8...Qa6 9.Qxa6 Nxa6 10.Nf3 and black doesn't really have any issues. He has less space but isn't really cramped and should be able to play ...c5 and play on the queenside. I'm going with it.

Now I really think I want to be playing nb8-nd7With my threats of c5 - I want him to play ne2 and try and get him to keep that knight tied to protecting d5 + protect against bishop entering via bf6 as I ulimately want to play g6. . But my ultimate goal would be to get my g knight to f5 which should provide enough of a bloackade to his kingside push ( I believe he is going to want to 0-0-0).
I am quite willing to burn more tempi at this stage as my ideal setup is to remain uncastled have a NF5 supported by Ne7 bg7 Qc7Rab8 and exert maxium pressure on the centre and c-file with a blockade on the kingside. - Maybe a pipedream but I think black has time.

I dont like Qa6 - white should not qxa6 and give black a tempo - 0-0-0 now if he swaps queen you have rxd3 the ideas of organising for a huge push on the f file which will be much quicker than any queenside push that black can muster as he does not have enough piece and is always at risk of liquidating his only developed pieces off.

No way. White has to keep the Queens on. The only question is where to move it.

After 0-0-0 Qd3 Rd3 only Black can be better. I don't see how your idea of an f-file attack is going to work - black has g6 followed by bringing the Knight to f5 and what is White doing?

Which is part of the reason I suggested getting a N through to f5. Because I do not think you can easily kick the bg5 without exchanging bishops

Okay, do I want to trade queens or not? He's really trying to avoid complications here.

At first glance, it seems like white's playing for mate and wants to keep the queens on the board. But really, after Qb6, if black doesn't play for the material in the corner, then it's actually white who has to worry about being mated. Black will castle long and is reasonably safe. So white has to play for a longer-term advantage.

So I really don't mind trading queens, but that's not the same as saying I want to do it.

The main issue now is deployment of the minor pieces. My bishop is in a nice spot, but his has a better pawn structure to work around long-term. My knight on c3 is fairly well-placed, and I think the one on g1 has a nice spot on e2, where it can either go to d4 or g3 eventually, depending on where black plays. The g8 knight probably wants to go to f5, and I'm not sure where his b8 knight wants to go.

If I allow a queen trade, I guess my options are 0-0-0 or to just take it myself with Qxa6. So which is better for me, a white rook on e3 or a black knight on a6?

I want to play 0-0-0, a3, Nge2, but the move order seems tricky. I'm not sure what order I want to play them in. If I take on a6, then I don't have to play a3 right away to avoid dealing with Nb4. Qxa6 Nxa6/0-0-0 Ne7/Nge2 Nf5 looks better for black. Or does it? I dunno, Ng3 Nxg3/fxg3 and I've got doubled pawns but the f-file is awfully pretty for long-term pressure. Maybe I'm not so scared of that knight on f5.

Well, if I'm not scared of that knight getting to f5, I kind of like it actually. Doubling on the f-file could be a nice, clear plan for white at least.

Qxa6 it is. I think I'm rambling here and I'm really not sure I've examined this position as thoroughly as I'd liked, but my brain is pretty fried from the weekend. I'm totally focused on this idea of black trying to shove his knight to f5 as fast as possible and I'm probably missing other options.

would something like 9. Ne2 have been a possible idea? In view of black's most likely breaks (c5, f6) an extra d-pawn might come in handy, albeit it looks a bit weird. Qxa6 does look like an admission that white has absolutely nothing and is just trying to equalize.

Not a lot to say here, this is a pretty automatic recapture. In blitz games I've toyed around with 9...bxa6 just for fun to try to use the open b-file, but black is just worse there. The double a-pawns combined with the lack of being able to push ...c5 spells disaster for black. Capturing with the knight on a6 is virtually forced.

I like black's position here. It's not better, but I think it's equal. Plus, black has pretty clear play and good squares for his pieces. Queenside expansion, here I come.

In my opinion, trading Queens is a big mistake for White. Black has almost a dream position for this variation.

I've studied and played this and similar positions a ton, because I'm really committed to playing this opening against the Caro-Kann.

Unless there's some nuance to this specific position that I'm missing, I'm pretty sure a computer would say white is a bit better, and that seems reasonable because of the space and development advantage. The problem is that you have to play incredibly accurately to maintain that advantage, whereas black's plan is relatively simple.

My obvious moves are 0-0-0 and Nge2. c5 is probably incoming, but I can't stop it and it's not actually all that bad. Nb5 in response is usually pretty strong. Nge2 is more flexible.