Books against Caro Kann as white

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Avatar of kwaloffer

I'm planning to switch back to 1.e4 soon. I'm looking forward to meeting the Sicilian, there are plenty of books on the Ruy that I should finally learn. Against the French I have some ideas (although good suggestions for repertoire books are still welcome).

But are there any good repertoire books for White against the Caro? I need lines that I can understand well (and that are hopefully explained well...), they don't need to be extremely sharp.

I'll wing it against the rest, mostly.

Avatar of VLaurenT

The old "Attack with 1.e4" by John Emms, offers an interesting sideline 2.c4 against the Caro.

You get mostly IQP style and hanging pawns positions, but Emms has original suggestions in most of them. It's not the most topical way to fight the Caro, but it doesn't require tons of work to get started.

If you prefer to go with the popular advance variation (which may be the best practical choice at amateur level), I think there is a repertoire by Sam Collins featuring it, but I'm not 100% sure.

Avatar of kwaloffer

I'm about 1950-2000ish OTB, and plateauing a bit as white which is why I want to switch to a different set of openings. I want to beat 2000-2200 opponents with them, and I'm prepared to start working seriously on my openings.

Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and get Anand 3?

Avatar of erikido23

There is an old kotronias book on playing the white side of the advance caro kann(I think its called beating the caro kann if I remember right) which might be out of date theoretically.  But, it has a fantastic introduction on the typical pawn structure and piece placements AND the ideas behind them.  That would be a great way to get started on the advance.  Then supplement that with looking at some databases with newer games and I think you will have a fantastic start. 

Avatar of VLaurenT
kwaloffer wrote:

I'm about 1950-2000ish OTB, and plateauing a bit as white which is why I want to switch to a different set of openings. I want to beat 2000-2200 opponents with them, and I'm prepared to start working seriously on my openings.

Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and get Anand 3?


Sure, that's an option too Smile

But Caro is still pretty rare at the 2000-2200 level (at least in my area). Maybe things are changing with Schandorff's recent book, I don't know.

I have drawn a FM with Emms' repertoire against the Caro though, so it's not too bad anyway.

From a purely practical point of view, 2000-2200 targets will be mainly in Sicilian waters I guess : plenty of points to garner with a very sharp opening repertoire...

Avatar of kwaloffer
hicetnunc wrote:
From a purely practical point of view, 2000-2200 targets will be mainly in Sicilian waters I guess : plenty of points to garner with a very sharp opening repertoire...

Yes, as black I've played Sicilians for years and I'm amazed that 2.Nf3 and 3.d4 happens in only about a third or so of my games, and I don't need to know an open sicilian very well to score plenty of points. And there's plenty of theory available to help white. I think I'll do well with 2.Nf3.

Good point about the rarety of the Caro, perhaps I should wait until someone's actually played it against me...

Avatar of kwaloffer

I bought Emms' Attacking with 1.e4. Thanks for the suggestion.

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