Greetings.

This is my first post on this forum, I've only recently discovered this site. It's great to be here.

I've come to the point where I'm in a pretty important dillemma. I've been persistently playing the Caro-Kann for half a year now, and I'm pretty used to playing the exchange variation (3. exd5) or the classical 3. Nc3. The advance variation was always fun for me to play, and I always liked the challenge of expanding from my rather cramped position and gaining space.

I can't really find chess books here in my country, they're really rare, and the ones I do find are rather old, and most concepts there are no longer in play now. Here, I come to my specific question. I often play by the idea of Ne7, c5, Rc8 and Nc6 after the position above. I don't know. White usually plays c3 and Be3, keeping a solid hold. What middle game ideas should I pursue? Should I attempt to undermine white's center or simply launch an expansion on the queenside? Is f6 a move to consider? If white castles short, where is my queenside attack actually going?

Excuse me if my questions are stupid, but I'm not very knowledgable as far as Chess goes, I've only been playing seriously for one year. It would be great if someone could clarify on the matters I've written above.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Regards.

I've not had too much experience playing against 4.f4 but from looking at the game you posted, I think it's important to make the c5 pawn push sooner rather than later.

Here's a high level annotated game that might be useful (see move list for variations):

And a couple of more:

So you want to be playing this from the White side.  I do not have much expertise on the Advance variation, but it was always really annoying to play against when I played the Caro Kann.

I'm looking to play this from the black side. Also, another thing... would it be wise to delay castling? Or, even, not castle at all?

I generally delay castling as long as possible, so as to assess White's intentions and to develop my own plans. I normally play Ne7 before c5, but looking at the Ivanchuk game I'll try playing it earlier (even if I'd not be able to pull off those ridiculous tactical shots). If White is sloppy in developing and gives you a move to play with, you can consider playing c4 and b5 to gain space on the queenside.

Karpov has a book out on the advance variation of the caro kann.

Nexus, did you ever consider to play c5 instead of Bf5? It's much less theoretical and with one book (Houska's play the Caro Kann for instance) you know all important variations. I love the play that follows and scored nice results with it, especially in OTB play. Most games go like c3, Nc6, Nf3, Bg4, Be2 and black is more than equal in my mind!