Here's an acceptable cop-out:

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. f4 c5 7. Nf3 Nc6. This transposes to the Steinitz French.

Black may not like this option as he chose the Caro-Kann, not the French! If white plays 4.Bg5 against the Classical French, he will now have to learn to play 4.e5.

tickleme wrote on 08/18/10 at 19:05:33:


There have been many good responses to this initial post. However, I just thought I'd go back to the beginning. While I've never been tempted to play the Caro Kann as Black, I must admit to a grudging respect playing against it as White. I've played the main-line, the Panov-Botvinik and looked at the 2Ns and exchange variation. I finally took a look at the Fantasy variation.

Is it for real? I think so. White stubbornly denies Black the move ...Bf5. The two main possibilities are 3...dxe 4.fxe e5 5.Nf3 and 3...e6. Black has other 3rd moves as noted on this thread. There is a lot of interesting literature as noted in posts on this thread. Ivanchuk has a recent Ebook devoted to the Fantasy variation at Modern-Chess.

Ivanchuk looks at this from the White side. Jovanka Houska provides a good look at 3...dxe 4.fxe e5 5.Nf3 from the Black side in her Opening Repertoire: The Caro-Kann. As usual ChessPublishing also provides a substantial amount of material. PGN games are also available from Chess Informant and Chess Assistant.

I've concentrated on sources that are in the PGN format. I've been able to squeeze them all into a single Chess Opening Wizard Ebook. (Special care is required for Everyman books.).

White players might wish to dismiss the Caro-Kann, but it can't be done. It's a good opening. Black players might wish to dismiss the Fantasy variation. It can't be done, it's a good line!

That was an inspiring defensive effort by Ivanchuk. 

Against 3...e6, I often transposed into a French Advance variation as White.

What a great collection of Fantasy Variation resources.  Thanks especially to Michel Barbaut for the book list.  I did a webliography a while back that might interest readers of this thread:
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2010/03/caro-kann-defense-fantasy-variation.ht...

Lou_Cyber wrote on 09/28/10 at 15:55:30:

Great game indeed, but essentially Jobava was the one who sacked - he gave two pieces and a rook for Ivanchuk's Queen.

Don´t miss out todays Fantasy game Ivanchuk vs. Jobava from the chess olympics. Chucky sacked a queen early in the opening and won on the 34th move.

Michel Barbaut wrote on 08/28/10 at 09:44:44:


Could agree to that, but...

In Gambeteer I Nigel Davies thinks: "The Caro-Kann is known as one of Black’s most solid defences to 1 e4 .... Generally speaking it leads to a rather dry technical struggle in which White will find it difficult to generate creative attacking ideas.

The move 3 f3 represents a serious challenge to Black’s strategy, in that it attempts to maintain a duo of pawns on e4 and d4. White argues that this apparently extravagant move is possible because of the passive nature of 1...c6 which did not contribute anything to Black’s development. "

If he really thinks that or if it is a promotion of the book I don't know but for me it is a fun suprise-weapon (forcing me to play actively) and it seams that many CK players are not that well updated on the variation. and often underestimate it.

I ran into it the last tournament I played in, in the under 1800 section. My opening prep before the tournament was negligible and I handled it very badly, but somehow managed to pull a draw out of it (also turns out my opponent was unofficially 1885). I think my opponent might have been able to finish me off early if he'd played it better. I'll post the game later. Maybe you will all get a laugh out of how I reacted to it as black.

Definitely going to study this sucker now.