So I think that white's best possibility is transpoition to the French Defence.

The fantasy variation hasn't felt challenging to me in the last 2 years. If anything almost drawish, playing the mainlines of 3... dxe4 4. fxe4 e5. I had a recent master win as black playing this way, albeit it was against the pawn grabbing Qb3 line not the mainline. I've heard several opening books dismissing Schandorff's set up in this line as somehow inferior, but haven't been seeing this inferiority in my games yet. I think black's development is so easy in the fantasy I just don't feel a lot of pressure, unlike some Panov or Advanced lines where you have to be well prepared and ready to fight. 

Maybe I'm just ignorant of the new attacking systems white has developed to punish the Nd7-Bg4-Ngf6-Bd6-o-o easy set up, with Qc7-rooks on e8 and d8 plus a timely Bh5 thrown in for good measure. 

I'm sure the e6 variation is also quite nice if you know the french.

lnn2 wrote on 02/14/14 at 12:09:02:


Surely the mutual tempo losses merely cancel each other out?  3...e6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.f4 c5 is a direct transposition to a main-line French.  

In a practical sense White is committed to f4 lines against the Classical French, but there are no theoretical problems for White.  It's not like he's playing 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.f4?! or something, and 3.f3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 hasn't given White any problems in practice.  Black's OK, sure, but no more OK than any other main-line French, as far as I'm aware.  

The mutual tempo loss is a good trade-off for Black. In the French it is perfectly legitimate for Black to lose tempi and play waiting moves in order to achieve strategic goals. That is not true for White if White wants an advantage. 

f3 also prevents kingside piece attacks (e.g. Qg4) which is one of White's most critical ideas against slow moves by Black. Thus Black can take his time with b6/Ba6 with no repercussions. 

MNb wrote on 02/13/14 at 19:55:48:

lnn2 wrote on 02/13/14 at 15:31:27:

Dreev lost two out of four games last 15 years (against Ni Hua and Nepomniachtchi) so that's not saying much.
Of course White argues that the pawn on c6 doesn't have any place whatsoever in a French structure either. Losing a tempo with c6-c5 justifies losing a tempo with f3-f4, especially if Black plays Ng8-f6. That leaves Black with setups involving ...Bb4. Nataf-Motylev, EUch 2003 presents your case better than Dreev.

MartinC wrote on 01/13/14 at 09:30:14:


With the greatest respect, MartinC, 3. f3 is a respectable line in its own right. Plenty of theory in this line, plenty to know. 
And please, please, I beg you, spell repertoire correctly. 
Buy the QC Tromp book with the name Pert shoved in to Repertoire.  Clever that.
This is not the ECForum where professional northerners spell randomly and still hope to be taken seriously.

I dont recall seeing much stuff written on the fantasy variation of the Caro Kann before which kind of surprises me as i would think it is relatively common in club chess (at least in Britain) and would therefore have a market.

The Extreme Caro-Kann
Attacking Black with 3.f3
by Alexei Bezgodov
New in Chess, 2014, 272 pages

This book just popped up in the New in Chess shop. Sample pages are available at http://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/992.pdf
If the recent appearance of books on the Fantasy Caro-Kann, the 2.a3 Sicilian and the King's Gambit happens to be a result of market demand, I guess 1.e4 players are getting a little desperate these days