What I Learned Playing Like Artemiev (1) : The Caro Part 1
Between the Candidates, my daily live streaming on Twitch and the podcast Chess Adventures available after every round, I did not find the time to write article in the last few days. Don't worry, I'll compensate for that with five articles this week !
My streaming practice is simple : I play a famous player's repertoire every week, even (and especially !) if I don't know any theory or close to that. Last week I decided to impersonate one of Russia's strongest hopes for the post-Magnus generation, Vladislav Artemiev.
With A Joker-like face and Bond-villain thick accent, I had to pick him first !
Artemiev's repertoire is pretty limited : Mostly 1-Nf3 with e3 and b3/b4 as White and Caro/Slav as Black. He does also play the Grunfeld but I keep that in reserve for MVL week (started today !).
I'll talk about what I learned in the Slav (a really, really hard opening to understand for me) and 1-Nf3 (incredibly fun, though move orders are super tricky if you don't want a boring or inferior position) later this week. For now, let's have some Caro for appetizers.
The way I see it, there are four big lines you need to know about : The Advanced, The Exchange, 3-Nd2/Nc3 and The Closed Caro. I've dabbled in other systems such as 3-f3 but they are marginal and may be dealt with on the board.
We'll start with the Exchange and Closed Caro. Why ? Although they are not exactly fashionable anymore among grandmasters, club players often go for it in order to either get attacking chances or build with fewer theoretical lines to remember.
The Exchange was temporarily en vogue 2-3 years ago and some strong players still go for it but I keep in mind Kramnik's repulsion at the hands of Fedoseev in Dortmund 2018.
The Panov Attack, where White goes c4 and not c3 in order to get an isolani, can be dangerous if Black ignores a little idea that I missed in some games before doing some analysis. If you get this system on the board, remember this absolutely !
In the Closed Caro, I lost a lot of games in the main line, getting brutally mated while my queenside initiative was never fast enough. So I opted for a system that is not best objectively but easier to play.
If you want to train yourself with some exercises, you can have a look at my Twitter feed. I posted one every hour from Monday to Friday.
Tomorrow I'll show you what I learned in the Advanced and Classical Line of the Caro. Until then, I'd love to have you come to my stream, I can even play against you if you'd like that ! Remember, this week is MVL week with Najdorf, Grunfeld and very sharp 1.e4 lines !
Be safe and I'll see you tomorrow !
