The Advance Variation is white's most challenging response to the Caro-Kann and the most popular on Lichess at the time of writing. White gains a long term space advantage, cramps black's position, and prevents it from developing the knight to f6.
It is similar to the Advance French, except that black hasn't yet played e6, so it can still develop its light-squared bishop outside the pawn chain—in fact, the main line for black is 3. ...Bf5. This was considered just a good version of the French and avoided by white players for a long time, until an explosion of theory allowed white to hassle black on the kingside.
This study explores black's main alternative to 3. ...Bf5, which is the immediate c5. It was played by Botvinnik in his 1961 World Championship match against Tal, and in recent years by top players such as Anand, Fedoseev, and Esipenko; it was also played in faster time controls in 2021 by Magnus, Ding Liren, Nepo, MVL, and others. Keith Arkell had remarkable success over a long period of time and I recommend studying his games. With that pedigree it is more of an alternative than a sideline, yet it will be lesser known to your opponent, and it avoids the mountain of theory that black must know in order to play 3. ...Bf5.
If you're like me and prefer to spend your time studying middle and endgames, and just want a solid and fairly simple response to the Advance Variation, then this is a good choice for you.
It is similar to the Advance French, except that black hasn't yet played e6, so it can still develop its light-squared bishop outside the pawn chain—in fact, the main line for black is 3. ...Bf5. This was considered just a good version of the French and avoided by white players for a long time, until an explosion of theory allowed white to hassle black on the kingside.
This study explores black's main alternative to 3. ...Bf5, which is the immediate c5. It was played by Botvinnik in his 1961 World Championship match against Tal, and in recent years by top players such as Anand, Fedoseev, and Esipenko; it was also played in faster time controls in 2021 by Magnus, Ding Liren, Nepo, MVL, and others. Keith Arkell had remarkable success over a long period of time and I recommend studying his games. With that pedigree it is more of an alternative than a sideline, yet it will be lesser known to your opponent, and it avoids the mountain of theory that black must know in order to play 3. ...Bf5.
If you're like me and prefer to spend your time studying middle and endgames, and just want a solid and fairly simple response to the Advance Variation, then this is a good choice for you.