The Panov-Botvinnik Attack | Aggressive Play in the Caro-Kann Defense | IM Alex Astaneh

hi guys it's alex here with chess factor and today for our final video in this repertoire series we're going to be showing you the panoff botvinic attack now the moves start here e4 c6 we have a our karokan and there are two ways of reaching the panel of botvinic the more normal or more popular way rather is via d4 d5 and now after e takes d5 we have an exchange variation but after c takes d5 white plays the move pawn to c4 and here we have our panoplotvinic attack now if on the other hand white starts with the move pawn to c4 as in the order of the accelerated panoff after the move d5 white can capture e takes d5 and after c takes d5 then the move d4 will get us by transposition to the exact same position that we just uh we just showed via the exchange variation move order so okay so this is our starting position and now the question is what should we do as black well we simply start with a very normal move knight f6 supporting our center here on d5 after the move knight to c3 we continue to develop our pieces knight to c6 this is not the only move this is how i play against the panoply finnick and this is what i think is just a very natural way of playing developing both of your knights first the first knight supports your center the second knight attacks white center and here white here we have the first let's say fork in the road where we are going to talk first about the move bishop to g5 before then talking about the absolute main line which is this natural move knight to f3 so bishop to g5 is actually quite a tricky move by white the idea is that white wants to capture the knight on f6 and afterwards take on d5 so we have to be very careful here now there are a few different ways to play as um as black here but a modern treatment of this position is the one i'm going to recommend is to simply capture on c4 now we've established already white's isolated queen spawn or iqp which is very very uh typical for pan off but winnick or accelerated pan-off positions white is essentially happy to play iqp position so this is really a very good idea if you want to play it from the white side if you enjoy iqp positions this is a good weapon against the cairo can after d-take c4 here um white recaptures the pawn and now black asks the question of this bishop on g5 with the move pawn to h6 there's a few different bishop retreats but by far the most common are either bishop e3 which is our main line or bishop to h4 now after the first move bishop to h4 we can play queen takes d4 and we grab this pawn immediately it turns out that it's a little bit better for us to have provoked the bishop to be on h4 among other things we can see that now as opposed to when it's on g5 now we're actually attacking not just the bishop on c4 but also the bishop on h4 one of the ideas behind this move h6 is that the bishop here on g5 is very happy to be on the c1 to h6 diagonal as well as on the h4 to d8 diagonal when we play this move h6 we say you have to make a choice either you go bishop e3 and you no longer put pressure on our knight or you go bishop h4 and you're no longer on this useful diagonal so hence the logic behind the move h6 finally i should add that if white captures this knight then after e takes f6 we may have doubled pawns but we have very fast development and we've won um a white's bishop pair and let's not forget that white's pawn on d4 is going to feel a little bit weak especially without a dark square bishop that could potentially support it so let's go back and let's go back to this line we're examining with bishop to h4 now black captures the pawn and well these positions are very very complicated that's why i would say that the players that thrive in these positions are players who enjoy iqp positions either playing with an iqp if you're white against an iqp if you're black and players who enjoy tactical uh complications because a lot of the lines we already saw in the accelerated pano and we'll see again here a lot of lines can get quite chaotic and crazy let's take a look at one of those lines white captures the queen knight takes a queen and now the idea is queenside castle here white has sacrificed the pawn but as you can see he's gained a lot of development look he has three minor pieces and the rook all developed whereas black still has his king on castled we see that white has castled his king and has less pieces developed so black has to be very careful now in this position the main move historically was to move pawn to e5 but i consider this to be very very messy and to require knowing really even more than with the move i'm going to recommend after things get completely uh crazy with f4 we won't get into the nitty-gritty but i'm going to recommend the move instead pawn to g5 after pawn to g5 now if white drops the bishop back now there's a lot less pressure on the black position and black can drop his knight back controlling this c7 square that's a very useful thing to control because sometimes white has ideas centered around knight b5 when uh the c7 square comes under fire so having the knight here on e6 gives black enough time to not have to worry about about this threat for example black can consider a move like a6 and if bishop takes knight then this knight here on b5 would fall so therefore after g5 it's considered best here for white to play rook takes d4 now after rook takes d4 g takes h4 white now plays knight b5 and the threat is not just to check picking up a rook but in fact knight c7 would be checkmate so you have to be very careful here as black so how to deal with this it seems at first sight mission impossible but black has one move and that is pawn to e5 hitting the rook on d4 this is very helpful because now if white goes after this rook black will recover his rook in this way in fact white usually gives the check king goes to e7 and now after rook takes h4 black is in time to defend his rook if we look at this position we say material is level black has a somewhat misplaced king in the center but in the absence of a white queen and in the absence of a white dark squared bishop the black king on e7 is not so unsafe after all but another point that i want to bring up is that with the bishop pair the slightly better situation in the center black's chances are certainly not worse than whites so we should allow this we should happily play this crazy variation uh if our opponents go into it so this g5 move is certainly worth one to remember and then later on e5 to escape against the deadly white threats let's roll back the position so we've seen that after bishop h4 black can actually get away with capturing the pawn if he knows what he's doing with this g5 move so therefore white most often drops the bishop back to e3 in order to defend the d4 pawn in this way now after bishop e3 black now plays the move pawn to e6 black might wish to develop the bishop but he has to be careful again with ideas like queen b3 striking at both f7 and b7 at the same time so because of this black plays a little bit more conservatively with e6 and he is not too concerned since we will see how he solves the problem with this bishop in just a second by following this line white goes knight to f3 and now black plays bishop d6 white can castle there's not much better than white can do just developing on the king side and now black does similarly finally the only question that remains is what is black going to do with this piece remember that in the openings at the end of the day a lot of opening theory a lot of books have been written but at the end of the day the main goal that players have whether it's with the white pieces or with the black pieces is just to try and develop their pieces uh as well as possible get them to as good as square as possible and also to try and frustrate their opponent in doing this so just from a first principles perspective the only real problem that black has is this bishop here on c8 so after white's move rook to e1 black simply goes about to solve this problem with the move b6 black will put his bishop on b7 very in the very near future and then at some point we'll usually play knight b4 and knight d5 in order to blockade white's isolated queen's pawn this is a fairly typical iqp position that black will aim for but overall i would say it's certainly not a bad one so this is how i would recommend to play against this bishop g5 line let's now dive back into our main line so on move six instead of bishop g5 we're going to show knight f3 so now we saw that bishop g5 h6 more or less leaves black okay if he knows what he's doing so the key lime the main line is knight to f3 now this gives black many different possibilities here for example black could play slowly with e6 or black could try and fianchetto his bishop with g6 and then in fact sometimes black wants to keep this pawn on e7 and so he supports the black pawn via a bishop on e6 and these positions are very rich and very interesting but for this video i'm going to recommend instead the somewhat crazy main line the nice thing about the main line however is that if you know what you're doing as black you can get uh well very very comfortable equality so let's check it out bishop to g4 white now tries to put pressure on these somewhat weakened points b7 and d5 so he captures on d5 now after knight takes d5 he now plays the move queen to b3 ignoring the fact that black can take on f3 and damage his structure instead white is going after these weak points if for example white played more slowly play the move like bishop to e2 then black could play e6 and very soon he will have consolidated his position and he will actually have a very very good iqp position because in this case the bishop has stepped out of the pawn chain a very typical idea we've seen many times in the karokan that before you commit to the move e6 you very often are happy if you can get the bishop out of the out of the chain so to speak so bishop e2 is really not a very threatening move for black at all the key test of this line is queen b3 now we accept to take on f3 and this is something that you can only do if you've done your homework after g takes f3 here we can see that there's a lot of pressure on both b7 and d5 and even before this perhaps you're wondering why can't white capture this pawn on b7 well if white does take the pawn on b7 this would be very good news for us because the position is already lost for white um at first sight it seems very good for white he he's attacking the knight on c6 attacking the bishop on f3 and for sure he will recover at least a piece but here black has a crushing move he plays the move knight d to b4 and it's not about the thread of knight c2 check so much as it is about the problems with the white queen now white recovers his missing piece but black plays rook b8 targeting the white queen on b7 and in fact there is no square that the white queen can go to we can see that the a6 square is covered by the knight on b4 and the pawn on a7 is protected by the knight on c6 so this is a way in which many white players have lost in this variation over the years so it's one to keep in mind okay so therefore let's set back let's set the position back up therefore in this position white recaptures the bishop immediately and now black has to deal with the multiple threads black actually plays the move e6 this is considered best defending the knight on d5 and if queen takes b7 then black is able to continue by capturing on d4 this is exactly how the line continues and if it's the first time that you ever see this line uh you know there's a lot to learn clearly a lot to remember and it seems quite intimidating i remember the first time that i saw this whole variation i thought oh it's such a mess it's so difficult to learn but actually the moves are quite linear there aren't so many different uh you know branches to the tree so once you do remember this it's quite a forcing line and um it's a very good line for black so it's definitely worth worth uh spending a little bit of time on it so here um the situation for white is that he has the same number of pawns as black but on top of that he has a damaged pawn structure so he needs to do something quite quick white plays bishop b5 check now black has no choice but to take it and here white can take back uh with the queen immediately or he can play the more common move which is queen c6 check and the idea behind queen c6 check is that this way black cannot play queen d7 because the rook on a8 would be hanging so this forces king e7 now in this position white now recaptures the knight with his queen i should mention that there does exist this move queen c5 check which is really a bit of a crazy sacrificial line from white because after the move knight d6 we are able as black to keep an extra piece knight takes d5 check e takes d5 and we can see that we have two minor pieces against only one the complications in this line are quite extensive but let me show you how the line should continue so you get a little bit of a feel for it white castles black plays queen c8 white plays queen takes d5 black plays queen b7 white gives a check black plays king d7 white only has a pawn for a piece but of course the black king is extremely vulnerable white pins the knight rook d1 black brings his rook in queen f5 check black blocks with the rook queen takes f7 check is now possible because the knight cannot take the queen due to the pin bishop e7 and white continues the attack with bishop to g5 black continues to defend black is just does not mind giving up a pawn or two in the process he just wants to try and keep his extra piece and here in this position he has black has more or less saved the vulnerable king by covering himself in with all his pieces and so here in fact white would have nothing better than to force a draw with the somewhat crazy looking move rook takes d6 check now rook takes d6 and rook e1 the idea is to put a lot of pressure sacrifice and exchange to put too much pressure on this bishop and black's best bet is queen to d5 after which rook takes e7 rook takes e7 queen takes e7 king to c6 and bishop to f4 is a position where for now white is still down in exchange but the bishop is very strong on this open board he does have a couple of pawns for the exchange so overall if you run this position into a computer for example it will tell you that the position is completely equal at the master level uh many master level players will know this theory here and they'll be happy to play with either side if they're okay with a draw so why do i mention this line for the most part you guys don't actually will not encounter this line very often but i just want in case queen c5 check has ever played against you that you're not you know thinking uh what is this it's completely foreign to you you have to play knight back to d6 and you have to find a lot of accurate moves as black in order to keep your piece but if you do find them white can easily go wrong and with the extra piece you can win so let's now go back to the main line and show the remainder of the main line so here white normally instead of this queen c5 check we'll play queen takes b5 recovering his piece and well the white pawn structure is damaged but on the other hand black's king on e7 is not so well placed so the position is balanced because of these different um factors they sort of cancel each other out black here has to play the move queen to d7 white can give a check but the lines will just transpose after bishop g5 check f6 white now can capture this knight but eventually he will have to move the bishop and so this check is really not a very significant difference versus the main line the main line here is first knight takes d5 we will take with our queen if we take with the pawn because we consider that our king is a little bit more vulnerable it makes more sense to take with our queen keep a healthy pawn structure and only if uh white wants to give us an isolated uh pawn white will have to get the queens off the board this is what the white player typically does and after e takes d5 we finally arrived at this very very well-known end game it's appeared in thousands of games this is the end game of this bishop g4 main line of the karo khan against the panel of botvinnik and basically with a perfect play this position should whittle out into a draw which should not be very surprising because each side has the same number of pawns and there's very reduced material now it's not like it's a completely innocent opening for example here well white can play many things for example bishop f4 bishop e3 even castle and there are some minor differences but for the purpose of this video we'll just look at bishop f4 and here i want to show how it's not like you can relax in this position i've actually played this position many times in blitz and sometimes i've won it with black other times i've lost it with black so still there's a lot to play for here we can show one scary line with the move king to e6 white castles queen side and we see that the white king is actually safer than the black king after castle black plays rook d8 in order to defend his pawn rook he and the black king finds shelter on f5 bishop e3 threatening to win this pawn which is a little bit dangerous for black because of the two connected potential connected past pawns that white would then have black defends his pawns and now white plays rook d4 threatening rook have four check ideas that could then potentially coral the king the black king on the side of the board so after rook d4 black actually allows the check with bishop c5 and after rook f4 check black plays king e5 into the discovered checks just with this key point that if white wins the bishop the black rook or rather the white rook is hanging on f4 and if bishop d2 check black can find shelter on d6 but this is really walking a little bit of a tightrope so um this particular line this is not what i'm going to recommend instead i'm going to recommend that instead of king e6 we're going to go back to that position and i'll show you the move that i think is simpler to make the draw and has to move king f6 so let's put that position on the board now so in this position rather than going king e6 and being able to get checked black goes king f6 after king f6 white now still does the same thing which is the castle and black ignores the pawn on d5 bishop c5 counter attacking against this weakness on f2 and after rook takes d5 which is white's best move black now has bishop takes f2 the material is level black will easily bring his rooks into play and i think that this is a lot easier than dancing with your king and having to walk into potential discovered checks so this is the line that i recommend this is where the theory ends it's one of the big theoretical lines but it's certainly worth knowing for any of the uh serious uh or even new to the karokan chess players okay so that's it from me uh for this repertoire on the karokan i hope you've enjoyed it i hope you've picked up some nice new ideas for those of you who are already familiar with the cairo can i hope it's been a fun introduction for those of you who are new to the opening and i think really that the karo khan is one of the absolute top drawer openings available against one e4 so i really do hope that you guys give it a shot in your own games and i hope that it goes very well indeed a couple of more things to say before i leave you guys the first is if you've liked these videos please give them a like on our channel and also if you'd like to see more videos along the same lines on a broad range of topics across different levels then go over to chessfactor.com where we have really a very broad selection of videos by grandmaster authors international master authors and other very very strong players so that's it for me and i hope to see you in another video soon you

Channel: Chessfactor

Views: 32,725

Keywords: caro-kann defense, caro-kann defence, caro kann, caro kann theory, chess theory caro kann, best opening for black, opening against e4, how to play the caro kann, chess, chess openings, chess opening theory, play the caro-kann, chessfactor, chess opening for black, caro kann defense, chess education, chess tutorial, chess channel, best chess channel, best chess openings, caro-kann for beginners, panov-botvinnik attack, caro kann panov, caro kann botvinnik, botvinnik, panov

Id: ruu4d_nG1TE

Length: 24min 36sec (1476 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021