Surviving the Caro-Kann Advance Variation

The Caro-Kann Advance main line sort of ends at the following position:

So what are the main ideas and themes following from this position?  

Some three ideas include:

It's hard to reason this stuff out from the databases, which show most of these moves doing pretty poorly, even if the engines say the positions are doing fine.  So how to preceed? 

Thoughtful comments from all rating levels welcome!!

The Caro-Kann: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala (2012) might be helpful.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627015516/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen163.pdf

3..........c5 for black is worth investigating .

try 1......e6

Cross your fingers and hope to be lucky. All reality, it's really this point in the middle game that your strategy skill is shown and you'll face many different problems throughout. Here's a couple of games of mine where the Caro-Kann advanced is used against me.

Meh...never mind--the other game I was going to show is 72 moves long and I can't download the PGN from the site I played it on so I have to actually manually input it.

I think the C-K has a good reputation for being somewhat passive, and I'm really not 100% convinced that White isn't getting a decent edge in these lines.  Would anyone suggest paths to equality or is the opening somewhat a flop?

Yes of course it's a flop, WC's like Botvinnik or Karpov would never have used it

Advocated in Opening Repertoire: The Caro-Kann by Jovanka Houska (2015).

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627051753/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen97.pdf

According to the October 2015 issue of Chess, in August, out of 2480 games where both players were rated over 2400, there were 99 Caro-Kann games. For comparison, there were 61 Najdorf Sicilians, although, of course, if one combined all the different sorts of Sicilians, the total would be much more than 99. Alternative approaches to 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 are discussed in The Caro-Kann: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala (2012) and Opening Repertoire: The Caro-Kann by Jovanka Houska (2015).

You should check out the YouTube videos by MSKChess on the Caro Kann; he has great videos on the Classical variation and the Advance Variation with 3. c5.  Here is the way my games with 3. c5 typically go:

I have only seen the variation where white takes on c5 maybe once or twice in my own games, but that is fun to play for black.  It is that variation that MSKChess covers in his video.

I hope this helps!

I'm currently learning the White side of this, so it's relevant to my interests, all the sources I've found for 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 recommend 4. dxc4 for White, so I would plan to be more prepared for that in serious settings.

Really?  That kind of surprises me.  Of course white can get a good game from it if he/she plays it right, but I think the black side of it looks pretty fun.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, all really interesting stuff, including the sugestions of @pfren and the stats from @ylblai2 .  Maybe I'll start playing 3... c5 to mix it up a little bit.  @jphillips your game resembles quite a few of my games from black's perspective, because the c5 push comes eventually in a lot of my games, but the way it was played in your example is not the really the correct way to play as white.

Like PeskyGnat that I quoted above, 4. dxc5 is the correct continuation as far as I'm aware, and I think black has a hard time gaining the pawn back and instead focuses more on counterplay than material for a while.

I think the reason I don't see dxc5 is because it is not a move that people around my level would typically play unless we know the theory.  We like to keep our pawns on d4 and e5 because that's what we learned when studying similar positions like the French, so taking on c5 doesn't go along with that plan.  Most of the people I play against haven't studied it and automatically play Nf3 or c3.

Please don t comment on my rating as I am only asking a sincere question and want to learn from more experienced players: can someone nicely explain to me how the Caro-Kann advance variation differs from the Semi-Slav defense

They differ in every way. Probably the most relevant is one is for playing against 1.e4, and the other 1.d4. 

TwoMove wrote:

They differ in every way. Probably the most relevant is one is for playing against 1.e4, and the other 1.d4. 

In terms of development...Do you also care to expand on your bland statement of "They differ in every way" rather than making one statement...

No

After 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5, two common continuations are 3 ... Bf5 and 3 ...c5. I am no expert, but my impression is that neither of the resulting positions are very close to typical Semi-Slav stuff.

In the semi-slav, White doesn't have a pawn sitting on e5 (it usually can't even get to e4), which is a major difference, that and Bc8 is outside the pawn chain.