Caro-Kann, Advance Variation, winning against white pawn storms
As an enthusiastic Caro-Kann player (playing black) I now and then run into the Advanced Variation where white starts a pawn storm on the king's wing.
I once encountered a player who said that he feared the variation when he played Caro-Kann with the black pieces, and I encountered another player who suggested the variation as a good choise for the white player, because it would cramp black's position and give white a great attack. Based on that one could get the impression that the variation is not good for black. Personally I consider that it is great for black, I love it myself and enjoy the games that evolves into that variation. I think that the chances are fairly even, it is the complications later on that determine the outcome of the game. I will post some of my games playing the black pieces, Caro-Kann, Advance Variation, with a white pawn storm on the king's wing.
I hope it appears, when you look at the games, that there are lots of excitement and possibilities for both white and black in this kind of play.
Game 1 with the subtitle "FIGHTING ALL OVER THE BOARD", because although white starts with a pawn storm on the king's wing it doesn't stick to that but soon includes both the center and the queen's wing. A very exciting game with a nice rook sacrifice at the end.
Game 2 with the subtitle "DOUBLE-SIDED", which refers to the two sides of the board. The center got rather closed, and a lot of the play happened on the two sides of the board; thus the game got very different compared with the first one. Black got the best exchanges of pieces and gradually got the best position.
Game 3 with the subtitle "WIDE-OPEN KING'S WING. In this game there was never a counter attack with c5, but the king's wing got very open and black counter attacked via that side.
Game 4 with the subtitle "QUEENS ATTACKING". White attacked on the king's wing and the white queen intruded the black position; thus white did succeed in breaking through on the king's wing, but the attack faded out. Then the black queen attacked the white position in a counter attack with the black queen breaking the way and other pieces taking over from there.