Continuing attempting to understand the Caro Kann ...Bf5 line.

With my last two posts written, I’m already tempted to draw two (possibly very premature) conclusions:

First of all, I find that describing even the most basic things take up quite a lot of space. And don’t get me wrong, I think that’s a good thing. I kinda knew this would happen. Like, it feels that some lines are completely obvious, but then I remember how it wasn’t completely obvious before. There was a reason to write it down in the first place... What used to happen was this: I quickly scanned through the opening explorer and went like ‘yeah, for sure I know this stuff’ and then under my games total panic arose typically around move 4 mixing up some move order and then stubbornly trying to make something completely unrelated work.

Secondly, and this is also good news, I have this strange feeling that some would describe as ‘enjoyment’ when doing this. It’s some kind of personal renaissance, rediscovering that chess is more than just playing non-stop 3+2 games late in the evening. Just carefully going through each possible move and just taking the time, is quite meditating in some way.

Having hereby jinxed my future enjoyment, I’m finally ready to continue the chessy business.

Doing ‘natural’ developing moves without any plan whatsoever

Okay, here is something funny I noticed. When people don’t know much about the opening they’re playing, they tend to avoid confrontation. They want to play ‘safe’ moves to keep the game going. They are less likely to make aggressive moves, build up pawn tension, create imbalances, et cetera. Sure, sure, we all know ‘this one guy’ at our local club that sacs the house whatever the circumstances, but I think my generalization generally holds. I used to do it A LOT. Being scared the opponent might know stuff that I didn’t. Then I realized it’s an insanely silly strategy. Besides the trivial fact that your opponent ain’t superhuman, making a series of predictable, quite, sub-par moves will neither scare you almighty opponent, nor improve your overall chances. There have been some lower rated players that are perfectly capable of playing a good game normally, only to start with an extremely passive 1. ...b6 setup against me. These games tend to be very one-sided.

I included a diagram with some possible continuations when both players aimlessly develop their pieces to ‘natural’ squares. In most cases these positions are quite stable for both sides, but considering white starts with the first-move advantage, we can state that black should be the happiest. This sets the frame for the whole opening: the pressure is mostly on white to find some concrete plan, and black wants to neutralize it.

In the lines given above, black has no problem equalizing, many moves are fine, but I just want to mention some small things to avoid any oopsies. (a) It’s worth to keep an eye out for Ne5. This knight can be a little annoying if it’s allowed to life. (b) Also, with a Q or R on the e-file, the e-pawn is pinned and Nf5 can cause problems if you forget about it. (c) Putting the B on f4 is a little embarrassing if you have to retreat it next move after ...Nd5. (d) After Ld3 neither player is forced to take, so don’t make this an automatic thing. (e) You can put the other B on c4, but it might block your own c-pawn and makes the ...b5 expansion come with tempo.

So, what if we just played without any idea, and we are unfortunately running out of new pieces to develop, and we need to use our brain. Let’s check. A somewhat promising setup for white consists of castling kingside, pushing c4, then b3 and put the B on b2. It keeps pieces on the board. Black is often happy to castle kingside and then play on the queenside. the ...c5 break usually assures black also gets its fair share in the center. It’s not difficult to imagine pieces get traded in the center and rooks over the d-file. If the light-squared bishops are not exchanged yet, another plan would be to eliminate the B on g6 with Nh4. Blacks typical ...c5 response is usually sufficient to reach a active position again, but at least white can dream about capitalizing on it’s bishop pair and queenside majority.

The plan to go 0-0-0 with white is ambitious here, although black is probably smiling most, as he was already planning to play on the queenside, and again ...c5 is principled and just good almost always. I also wondered about the plan to put the N on e5, trade it, and get forwarded pawn on e5. But checking some different move orders, I found out that it’s not really such a great thing by itself. If you get the e5 pawn just for the sake of having it, without any follow up, it’s usually just weak. Black can often easily work around it, and it makes blacks endgame move favorable, I think.

Some comments about the h4-h5 expansion

Players with a plan, and possibly also the cavemen among us, might already have identified the move 6. h4, threatening to trap the bishop, and forcing black to reply with 6. ...h6. Arguably expanding on the kingside is beneficial for white here. Currently blacks position is very solid, but not very dangerous. Neither side is going to win from here anytime soon, so minor improvements are the way to go, and after fixing the pawns on h5 and h6, white achieves a nice little space advantage, whilst black is slightly cramped. In a far-far-away future, an attack might spring to life on the kingside.

Black is currently minding his own business, not really threatening anything, so white is not in a hurry to develop his pieces, hence 6. h4 is reasonable (moveover, it comes technically with tempo anyways). In certain positions weakening your own kingside by moving the defensive pawns is fatal. However, and this should be very self-explanatory, there is no king on g1... White might castle queenside. It has to be said though that king safety is never really a big concern here anyways. I put some moves on the board to show a possible position where white still insists on castling kingside. This would be a very weird and inconsistent choice, but not particulary bad. Black is just not in a position to launch a fearsome attack here.

There is however some long-term disadvantage of having the pawn on h5, regardless where we castle. From its natural square on f6, an enemy knight will always keep an eye on it. Of course, as long as we don’t blunder it horribly, the pawn is not at all in any existencial fear at this moment. But still. Imagine an endgame from here with a queen or rook on d5 too. Yes, yes perhaps our g-pawn defends his collegae, but who is going to defend him the brave g-soldier? The f-pawn, I guess?! I know it’s all very far fetched, but it’s all fun and games until some random wild king starts eating all you way-too-advanced pawns. For fun, I removed all pieces and analysed this endgame, and very often white is only one tempo away from losing. The black king can attack the kingside pawns, and a timely ...g6 is really annoying for white, as hxg6 fxg6 will give black a potential passer on the h-file, probably winning the game. Nobody will ever reach this exact endgame, but in general black will be the one pushing, despite equal material.

This might be the best time to remind myself of a general principle they told me long ago: in these very stable, but cramped structures, it is often preferable to have pieces exchanged and move towards an endgame. The pawns are all at home-base, so they are easy to defend. (They are simply far away from the enemy.) Exchanges solve the cramped-problem. This could easily be interpreted as ‘white doesn’t want an endgame and has to win during the middlegame whatever the costs’, which is really nonsense if you write it like this, but still... White just want a better endgame than the one above, perhaps with some active piece or something like that.

Attempting being clever, and playing the knight to f4

There is also this idea of bringing a knight to f4, either via h3 or via e2. I think it’s awesome, and here’s why: it punishes black for brainlessly developing his pieces. This is what I mean: 6. Nh3 Nf6 7. Nf4 e6?! 8. h4 and black is in a pickle. Making some space ...h6 doesn’t work here; the bishop in under attack. Black has to do something ugly. Perhaps trading on f5, perhaps something else, but white gets a pleasant advantage. Bishop pair, active knight, some space on the kingside.

Black needs to be a little more aware of whites sneaky idea, and needs to prevent it in some way. The database shows two main options. First of all, we can make use of the knights unusual developing path. It isn’t on f3, and the lack of control over e5 allows us to take more control over the center than we commonly get in this opening. If we are allowed to play the e-pawn two squares instead of one, we challenge the white central pawn, whilst still performing the function of making room for the bishop. Keep in mind it has one defender more than it appears at first glance: with Qa5+ we also indirectly defend e5. White actually has to be a little careful because of this strike in the center. Playing the knight twice and pushing h4 costs so many tempi, that underdevelopment starts to kick in, in some lines. I show an example in the diagram. White should keep an eye out for ...e5 in these lines, and not overpush.

The second perfectly sound option, is to harass the knight on f4 by going Bd6 and Qc7. White does not get the time to push all the way to h5, in most cases. Trading with Nxg6 will result in stuff we already looked at above. I found also a line where white just uses all his forces to defend the N on f4, which leads to an interesting position with many pieces on the board. Too complicated for me to assess, but it feels like white gets more out of the opening than he usually gets with the pushed h-pawn and the more active pieces.

All in all, I just think the Nh3-line leads to some fun and tricky positions.

What’s next?

Clever people among us might have noticed how I managed to completely avoid the main line altogether for now... Good things come with time, I say to those. Next time, and hopefully last time for this opening, I will look at the main line, and then I’m finally ready for battle (famous last words...). I will focus on the castling options most, I think, but we’ll see.