The Caro Can

John B. Henderson • March 13, 2023

Much like the luxury motoring partnership formed during the Midland Hotel, Manchester meeting in 1904 between Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, the Caro-Kann Defence derives its name from the collaboration of two nineteenth-century chess players, Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann, who joined forces for a meeting of minds in 1886 to study the embryonic new opening that now jointly bears their names. 


Since then, many world champions and contenders have used this defence It also figured heavily in Soviet-era play as well—Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Tigran Petrosian, Vasily Smyslov, and Boris Spassky having all deployed the Caro-Kann Defense - and was once perceived to be the bane in the early chess life of a young Bobby Fischer. 


Nobody big nowadays is championing the Caro-Kann. We saw a lot more Caros when Karpov and Vishy Anand were in action and leading the way for defenders. If someone like Magnus Carlsen shifted to the Caro, it might well be back in vogue again with a popularity swing.


But it is also unfairly tagged as being not very exciting. Sure, the Caro-Kann offers good chances to equalise, but grandmasters want to have a defence that can offer them more winning chances. Also, club players often don’t think the Caro will be fun to play. But the Caro can both be fun to play and to play against!


One of my all-time favourite Caro encounters came in a highly entertaining swashbuckling battle between Fernando Braga and Jan Timman at Mar de Plata 1982, where a mistake from both players was necessary for the mutual pyrotechnics and draw that led to it being somewhat cruelly dubbed as being "the 'Immortal Game' that ran out of gas".


In a recent column from only last week - Game of the Year? - we also witnessed the Caro involved in a game that’s already being hailed as an early candidate for the “Game of the Year” award. And that was soon followed by another phenomenal game, yet again involving the boring Caro(!), that’s also being hailed as a serious contender for one of the best games of 2023.

It was seen during last week’s final weekend of the Swedish first league “Elitserien”, as the two-time Swedish champion, Erik Blomqvidst, turned on the style against fellow GM Hans Tikkanen with a volley of spectacular sacrifices to win a crucial match-victory for his team.


Photo: Erik Blomqvist turns on the sacrificial style! | © Lars OA Hedlund


GM Erik Blomqvist - GM Hans Tikkanen

Swedish Elitserien, (7)

Caro-Kann Defence, Two Knights Variation

1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 The offbeat Two Knights variation was doggedly adopted by the young Bobby Fischer until the turn of 1960 - and this was how the Soviets targeted Fischer, with many of their stars playing the Caro-Kann, as they perceived this wasn't the sharpest option White had, and therefore instant opening equality against the troublesome young American. 3...Bg4 And this was the very line the Soviets used en masse against Fischer in the 1959 Candidates Tournament in Bled/Zagreb, as Petrosian, Keres and Smyslov scored an undefeated 3/5 with Black!

4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Back in the day, Fischer's rationale for playing this line was that he felt it had to be good as he already has the "advantage" of the two bishops - but the Soviets showed the young American upstart that he still had much to learn, and there was more to chess than the bishop-pair. 5...e6 6.Be2 Bc5 7.O-O Nd7 8.exd5 exd5 9.Re1 Ne7 10.Na4 Bd6 Worse was 10...Bb6 11.Nxb6 axb6 12.d4 and White does have a big advantage with the bishop-pair. 11.d4 Qa5 12.Nc3 Nf8 13.Bh6! This thunderbolt had to have come like a psychological blow for Tikkanen.13...Rg8?! Very risky - but your confidence can be shot after being hit early doors by a dramatic piece sacrifice. It's no comfort, but better, according to the engine, is 13...Ne6 14.Bxg7 Nxg7 15.Qf6 O-O-O 16.Qxg7 Ng6 and it is not all bad, where despite losing a pawn, Black does have mitigating compensation with the open g-file and the knight slipping effortlessly into the ideal f4 outpost.14.Bd2 Qb6 15.Qd3 g6 It's a bit too early to run the king to safety with 15...O-O-O?! due to 16.b4! with a formidable attack brewing on the queenside.16.Na4 Qc7 17.Nc5 b6 18.Na6! This knight is far from being 'dim on the rim'! 18...Qd7 19.c4 Ne6 20.Bf3 O-O-O With Blomqvist set to blow the game open, Tikkanen probably felt he had no other option than this - but it falls right into the category of "castling into it". 21.Rac1 dxc4 22.Qxc4?The only miscue of the whole game from Blomqvist - the engine correctly calls the clean kill with 22.Rxc4! and Rec1 to follow, resulting in carnage down the c-file. 22...Nxd4! It's hard to know, but it could well be that Blomqvist had seen the spectacular queen sac, so dismissed the better 22.Rxc4 by allowing the tactic on d4 - but it does come with the risk of allowing Black saving chances. 23.Qxd4 Bh2+ 24.Kxh2 Qxd4 25.Rxe7 Qd6+ [see diagram] There are many who might well have thought they'd just blundered here, as Black picks off the loose rook on e7 - but there's a big shock coming! The alternative faired worse, with 25...Rd7? 26.Rxc6+ Kd8 27.Rxd7+ Kxd7 28.Rc7+ Ke6 29.Be3 Qxb2 30.Rxa7 Rd8 31.Rb7 Qe5+ (There is no defending b6. After 31...Rd6 32.Nc5+ Ke5 33.Ne4 Re6 34.Rxf7 leaves Black's king trapped in no man's land in the middle of the board, surrounded by White pieces.) 32.g3 Kf6 33.Bxb6 and a winning material and positional advantage. 26.Bf4!! Unbelievable stuff, as Blomqvidst not only ignores the hanging rook on e7, he now offers also his bishop with check AND his other rook on c1! 26...Qxe7 The momentary deflection of the queen from d6 is crucial for the win/mate - and hence 26...Qxf4+ 27.g3 Qd6 (If 27...Qxc1 28.Rc7#) 28.Rxa7 Rd7 What else is there? After 28...c5 there's no answer to 29.Rd1! Rge8 30.b4! f5 31.b5 h5 (If 31...f4 32.Bg4+ forces a mate-in-five!) 32.Bc6! leaves Black paralysed and waiting for the inevitable death-by-mate. 27.Rxc6+ Kd7 If 27...Kb7? 28.Nb8!! sets up the discovered-check mating threat with Rc1+ that forces 28...Rxb8 29.Re6+ Ka6 30.Be2+! Kb7 31.Rxe7+ easily winning. 28.Rc7+ Ke8?? Punch-drunk from the pummeling to his king, Tikkanen walks right into the haymaker rather than losing on points after 28...Ke6! 29.Rxe7+ Kxe7 30.Nb4 and the rooks are no match for White's very active three minor pieces - but converting that win involves actual work. 29.Bc6+ Rd7 If 29...Kf8 30.Bh6+ Rg7 and White will pick off first the rook and then come back for seconds with the queen to easily win.30.Nb8! The knight on the rim swoops in to win! 30...Qb4 1-0 Tikkanen resigns before Blomqvist could play out the finale of his brilliancy with 31.Be5 Ke7 32.Rxd7+ Ke6 33.Bd5+! Kxe5 34.Nc6+

forking king and queen to go two pieces up.

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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