Caveman Caro

I'm sure you could offer your insight to MVL, who played Kd2 to defend his knight with his king, so his other pieces could gain activity instead of defending.

Well, the pawn on c2 and the knight on c3 are hanging, so the king should protect both.

8.Bf4 ist the move of a genius! Black is in a kind of Zugzwang after that. And somehow chessengines still don't understand the various Dxb2-Variations in the Caro-Kann.

Dana Mackenzie has some homebrew he calls the "Homo Erectus Variation" since it's even more primitive than the "Caveman."

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. g4!?

It works well for him in tournaments. He's written an entertaining series of blog posts on it:

http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?p=290
http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?p=296
http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?p=302
http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?p=722

He calls C-K players the "quiche eaters of the chess world!"

4.g4 is very ambitious but what is it really threatening? It's not like white has any attack..

pfren: Which link are you referring to?

lol: It pushes the bishop and starts a kingside attack. You can argue whether it's a good attack or not.

Mackenzie's objective is to force his C-K opponent out of his comfort zone and into uncharted tactical waters. Mackenzie appears to succeed. His record was "+13 -3 =2, or a 78 percent winning percentage." He's a 2100 playing in regular US tournaments.

So this isn't GM analysis for GM play. Mackenzie is serious about chess and he likes to have fun with it too. His blog is unusually enjoyable.

Sure it's playable but what advantages does it have over Shirov's attack with Nc3 first?

lol: I didn't say it did have an advantage over Shirov's attack. I don't imagine Mackenzie would either.

It's a surprise weapon which Mackenzie had the pleasure of inventing himself.

Turns out Mackenzie is a Life Master and a more versatile fellow than I realized. Here's a blurb from his DVD product, "Nuke the Sicilian":

LM Dr. Dana Mackenzie is a USCF Life Master, a PhD mathematician, and an award-winning mathematics, science journalist and author.

LM Dana Mackenzie started playing tournament chess during the "Fischer boom" of 1971-72 and never quit. Champion of North Carolina in 1985 & 1987, he became a master in 1988. Mackenzie now lives in Santa Cruz, CA and runs a chess club for kids at the local library. His passion for chess and his enthusiasm for teaching is unmistakable.

Not a fan of Shirov's attack since black easily just counterattacks in the center and makes white pawns look silly..

Ideally, perhaps.

Yet in tournament play Shirov's attack does well enough: 41.3% 28.3% 30.5% according to chessgames.com. And Shirov himself beat Topalov with it as late as 2008.

It's easy to pass judgment on a variation in the comfort of one's study with books, the web and a databse at one's side. It's another matter to face the beast in open combat with a clock ticking.

I always get mated when I play it..I prefer calmer lines with Nf3 and h4

And 4.g4 usually will transpose to Shirov attack if he plays Ne2 instead of the immediate h4