Just thought I'd post a nice game from Tata Steel (where the Exchange has been played a few times so far this year), involving a teenage GM against a former world #4 player.  It varies from a line which came up earlier in the thread by Black's omission of ...Bxf3 before ...Bd6.



annotated by Herman Grooten in Dutch at
https://www.schaaksite.nl/2019/01/14/lucas/

kylemeister wrote on 10/09/17 at 04:29:37:


I'll have a look at that, it was a very nice game by Ivanchuk also. Of course White is not committed to go "all in" with Rae1 either. I recall Danny King prefers the calm Rfe1 in these positions and after ...Bg6 he even goes Bf1 I think and later he has a4 playing on both sides. 

Other than that I was looking at some ...g6 lines combined with ...Nh6 to go a little bit away from the main-lines. Those lines seem to score OK, as does the early ..Qc7 line but for some reason that is just not appealing to me.

Keano wrote on 10/08/17 at 22:28:45:


You can take solace in the fact that you're playing the Black side of a Caro Exchange and not French Exchange, at least. 

I see Kramnik has picked up up the exchange line as his way to go against the Caro when he is playing 1.e4.

Funny enough I am looking to play the Caro as Black on occasion now and have found it tricky picking up a response for Black here that I really like.

Re Degraeve-Bauer in #42 (maybe I missed it when it was posted), I'll throw in a couple of historical recollections.  12...Bg6 reminds me of Browne-Larsen 1972 (one of a couple of nice games won by Browne against Larsen that year).  A decade later, Timman-Hübner saw 12...Bd6, which was considered an "! =" kind of move.

A few years later, and this line still looks like a decent option.

French GM Degraeve seems to have a good handle on it in particular

Degraeve,Jean Marc (2563) - Bauer,Christian (2633) [B13]
FRA-ch 88th Nancy (8), 19.08.2013

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qc8 8.Nd2 e6 9.Ngf3 Bh5 10.Ne5 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Qc2 Bg6 13.Nxg6 hxg6 14.h3 Qd8 15.Nf3 Nh5 16.Bh2 g5 17.Qd2 g6 18.Rae1 Rc8 19.Kh1 Kg7 20.g4 Nf4 21.Bxf4 gxf4 22.Qxf4 Bd6 23.Qe3 Qf6 24.Ne5 Qh4 25.f4 Nxe5 26.fxe5 Be7 27.Rf3 Bg5 28.Qe2 Bf4 29.g5 Bxg5 30.Rg1 Rh8 31.Rg4 Qxg4 32.Rxf7+ Kxf7 33.Qxg4 Kg7 34.Kg2 Bh4 35.Bxg6 Rcg8 36.Kh2 Bd8 37.Qxe6 Rh6 38.Qf7+ Kh8 39.Bf5 Bg5 40.e6 Rg7 41.Qf8+ Rg8 42.e7 1-0

Keano wrote on 11/10/09 at 15:59:30:


Ponomariov used this move-order the other day to secure a draw and win the tournament: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6549

Admittedly he didnt get much or anything out of the opening, but its clear he regards it as a safe system and had put in a bit of work on it from his comments.

Hi Keano!

Drawing conclusions from my own extensive black experience with h3 lines in CKE ( both 5...Nf6/Qc7, I´ve scored 11,5/13 on ~2200, white players mostly slightly weaker: 1970-2260) I should say that in these (pseudo) IQP lines the additional h2-h3 is imo a less useful move -  it´s more a weakness! The pawn h3 is someplace where Bc8/d7 wants to be sacrificed, in addition it´s difficult for white to establish a defending MP on g3. Or to pull back a Ne4 with f2-f3.

Bf5 lines are probably weaker (read: less strong) for black, but more complicated and because of this better to outplay weaker opponents. After Bxf5 gxf5 black has to take care for g2-g4. Therefore black shouldn´t castle short, at least not before white has done so and can think about ...o-o-o and ...h5/Rhg8. Or just stay with his King on e8/d7.

In summary I do not see any theoretical problems for black and only good practical chances for him. That´s especially true in original C-K move orders - in London move orders (with ...c5xd4 e3xd4 which I also employ) black of course has to play more precisely. Because at the moment of pawn exchange both sides have already played some system moves and often white´s (Bf4,h3) are a little bit more useful and important for CKE structure than black´s (Nf6,a6). But even then Black can get equal chances if he knows what he´s doing.

tracke