A trap in the Caro-Kann Defense, Exchange Variation

I found this trap in Amatzia Avni's excellent book Danger in Chess: How to Avoid Making Blunders. The identical trap can arise by transposition from other openings, such as the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4). The winning idea is sufficiently unusual that most White players missed it - ChessBase shows that in the position after Black's 12th move, only 5 out of 31 players found the winning move! All six masters and experts that reached the position played 13.Nxe5??, scoring only 3-3.

Another trap in the Caro-Kann, Two Knights Variation

Bobby Fischer wrote in My 60 Memorable Games that the purpose of the Two Knights Variation against the Caro-Kann Defense (1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3) "is to exclude the possibility of" ...Bf5. As I've showed previously, Black indeed gets in big trouble if he proceeds in stereotyped fashion with 3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5?! 5.Ng3 Bg6?! But the Two Knights Variation is no one-trick pony. The following game shows another, much less-known trap in the 3...Bg4 line, which is considered Black's best. As the game and notes show, after 4.d4!?, Black gets in hot water if he tries to win a pawn with the natural 4...dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 Qxd4. Better is the solid 4...e6!, which gives Black a plus score in the databases. Scott Thomson ("keypusher" on ChessGames.com) sets the stage for the game:

I don't have the score, but as our Secretary of State might say it is seared -- seared! in my memory. . . . It was when I lived in England in the early 90s, and for some reason -- perhaps a cholera epidemic -- I was playing first board for Wood Green in a team match. There was a pub next door, to which my opponent repaired after each move (which he took about five seconds on).

Deceived by his opponent's alcohol consumption and seemingly reckless play, Scott proceeded to lose a miniature in humiliating fashion. We've all been there.

From the Chicago Open

GM Nikola Mitkov responds to the Caro-Kann with the Two Knights Variation and demolishes the Georgian GM Mikheil Kekelidze.  Game score via Monroi.

Spanked by Uncle Marv

Here's another Morris Giles vs. Marvin Dandridge encounter. The North Central Open was one of the Midwest's strongest tournaments in the early 1980s.

White asks more of his position than is there: not good policy against Dandridge.

U.S. Championship Round 9

Kamsky takes the lead with a brilliancy:

Kamsky-Seirawan
2012 U.S. Championship, St. Louis
White to play and win

So why didn't Black play 23...Nd7, one asks?  The answer is not hard to find, but it's very beautiful.

Kamsky-Seirawan (variation after 23...Nxd7?)
White to play and win

Silly Internet game #671

Beware the "free pawn" that isn't free! The tactical motif seen in this game (12.Nxf7! with the idea of 12...Kxf7 13.Bg6+, winning the queen) also occurs in some traps in the Caro-Kann, for example 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 Ndf6 6.Bd3 Qxd4? 7.Nxf7! and wins.

FM Albert Chow analyzes Abrahamyan-Dean

Enjoy Albert's wonderful analysis of this wonderful game between WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and FM Jim Dean.

Board 3: Dean-Abrahamyan ½-½

I have no idea what happened in this game. I watched part of it last night, and early on, I thought that Jim Dean would have good chances to win with Black. But Tatev Abrahamyan is very resourceful, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had a winning ending at a certain point. (Knight and bishop often have problems coordinating against an enemy rook, to the point that Reuben Fine considered rook and two pawns vs. knight and bishop to be a win in the general case.)

Restrain, blockade, destroy, draw.

Know your rook endings

There are two rook plus pawn vs. rook positions that every player should understand: the Philidor position and the Lucena position.

You will sometimes get positions very close to either the Philidor or the Lucena: in many (most?) cases, your job is to try to convert to the Philidor (as defender) or Lucena (as attacker).

In round one of the U.S. Open, Sevan Muradian handled the ending much better than his young opponent, but made one slip that could have thrown away the upset win. Very nice game!

Caro-Kann YouTube video

I produced, and just uploaded to YouTube, a video on an opening trap in the Caro-Kann. Please let me know what you think of it.

A cheap but effective trap

The trap below was played in Keres-Arlamowski, 1950 and also, as I recall, in a game between Alekhine and four(!) amateurs. There are 12 games with the trap in ChessBase's Big database. In two of them, White missed the mate in one! Back in my 1.e4-playing days, I routinely played 5.Qe2!? in blitz games. More often than not, my opponent fell into the trap! The correct response is 5...Ndf6!

An important trap in the Caro-Kann

The Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6) is an annoying opening to play against; White gets only a small edge, if that. The trap below is essential to know if you play either side of the Caro-Kann. It can win you a lot of points as White. Those who play the 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 line will often blithely play 4...Bf5 against the Two Knights Variation (2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3) as well, erroneously thinking that there is no significant difference between the two lines.

Black should avoid this trap by playing ...Bg4 on move 3, 4, or even 5, or by playing 4...Nd7 or 4...Nf6, with a likely transposition to standard variations. On move 7, 7...Qd6! (Mayka-NN, c. 1975) is the best try. After 7...Bh7?, Lasker's 8.Qh5! forced 8...g6, leaving Black's bishop looking horrible on h7. His 9.Bc4 again threatened mate, making 9...gxh5?? impossible. Note that 9...Qxd2+ 10.Bxd2 gxh5 would avoid mate, but lose material to 11.Nxf7 or 11.Bxf7+. After 10.Qe2, Black should have played 10...Qe7! guarding f7, when Black has an ugly position but can still play on. 10...Be7 may also be possible. After 10...Bg7?? 11.Nxf7!, Black resigned in light of 11...Kxf7 12.Qxe6+ Kf8 13.Qf7#. Note that 10...Nf6?? (Alekhine-Bruce, Plymouth 1938) and 10...Nd7?? (McKenna-Stockinger, 1994) are met the same way.

Twenty-six years later, Lasker improved on his own play with 9.Qf3! (winning at least a pawn by force) Nf6 (9...Qd5?? 10.Qxd5 cxd5 11.Bb5+ Nc6 12.Nxc6 a6 13.Ba4 1-0 Tartakower-Ellinger, Horsington 1944) 10.Qb3! Qd5 11.Qxb7! Qxe5+ 12.Bxe2 Qd6 (White threatened Qc8#) 13.Qxa8 Qc7 14.a4! Bg7 15.Ra3 0-0 16.Rb3 and White won in Lasker-Müller, Zurich 1934.

Karklins-Dlugy

Bill mentioned in an earlier post that Chicago FM Andrew Karklins has beaten about 20 grandmasters. Here is one of those wins, against the super-solid American GM Maxim Dlugy. (Is he one of those "Maxims of Chess" John Collins wrote a book about?) Note that Karklins' offbeat 5.Bg5!? already set the trap 5...h6?? 6.Nd6+! winning the queen. Dlugy blundered on move 10, falling into another unusual queen trap. After winning the queen, Karklins was not content to quietly exploit his material advantage, but continued to play the most incisive move at every turn. I like how in the final position, Black could play 21...Rxd1 mate - if only it were legal!