That Budapest line is verbatim in the book, page 79, note 12. But no mention of an engine relating to it. I checked pages 1-7, 61, and 79.

Your idea of 9.Be3 seems very nice.Edited:


One thing I've noticed in Kaufman's books is his claim of += for evaluations which my other software gives as =. Similarly Kaufman gives +/- versus +=. Not to say either one is correct or incorrect, but I think it comes down to how much "advantage" white is willing to be satisfied with. After 6...e5 black does have an IQP, at least nominally it's something to work with. I can imagine many Caro-Kann players being reluctant to take it on regardless of whether this particular position is equal or not. I think it's equal, but then again I play different IQP positions in my repertoire, for both sides. If Caro-Kann players don't like it and won't play 6...e5, that's a mild argument for taking up the Exchange Variation.

Another detail is in the lines Kaufman gives (I used the preview at amazon.com), whether or not black plays ...Qc7, all black's other moves are the same: ...Nf6, ...g6, ...Bg7, ...Bf5, ...O-O. The difference is against ...Qc7 white plays Be3, when black omits this white plays Bf4 and seems to get a little more out of the game. So, if black is *not* going to play 6...e5, it makes sense to play 5...Qc7.

Nunn didn't have much to say about engines.

Quote:

Kaufman should have at least mentioned it. When I was an amateur I knew a lot of book, but if "the book" didn't mentioned something *at all* then I would have thought it was an error and tried to punish it. But that's not the correct path here. 

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.h3 e5 7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Nf3 
(8.Bb5+ Nc6 9.Bg5 Bc5 10.Qe2+ Be6 is Hartz - Euwe. 
8.Qe2 Qe7! 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Bxd7+ Nfxd7 is Honfi - Portisch. 
Both natural attempts to punish black that don't work out.)

• 8...Nc6 Schwarz gives as leading to equality.
• 8...Nxd3+ Schwarz gives as leading to approximate equality.
• 8...Nxf3+ Schwarz gives as leading to +=. 
• 8...Bd6 Varnusz (quoting Botvinnik) gives as leading to equality.

For some reason I trust Botvinnik in this IQP position. I'm thinking of 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 exd5 which he knew quite a bit about. I also used to play that way in the French, following the Karpov vs Korchnoi games; based on that experience I believe 8...Nxd3+ is a mistake (+=). And 8...Nc6 is a pure loss of tempo. So 8...Bd6 also makes sense by process of elimination.

ECO B (1984) copies Schwarz and Varnusz. 
ECO B (1997) skips all that and gives Honfi - Portisch above, but says it is (=+) Gusev - Tseitlin, SSSR 1985 -- 40/153.
The "Small" ECO (2010), of which you spoke so unkindly before, doesn't mention 6.h3. The more I look at the Small ECO, the more I agree with your assessment.

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Qc7 6.h3 g6 7.Nf3 Bf5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Be2 Bg7 10.Re1.

I was wondering why the move order you presented makes so little sense to me. But I see Kaufman actually doesn't mention 5...Qc7 6. h3 g6 but only 6...Nf6 there. And in his main line he gives 5...Nf6 6.h3 g6 7.Nf3 Bf5 8.Be2 (that makes more sense) O-O 9.O-O Qc7 and now 10.Re1. Anyway it looks like white's "plan" after retreating the bishop from d3 is to wait for black to play ...g6-g5 before putting the bishop back on d3.

In the old Caro-Kann books they gave 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.h3?! e5!, e.g. Varnusz (1982) Play the Caro-Kann quotes Honfi - Portisch, Hungary 1962 (=+) and some analysis by Botvinnik (=). Schwarz (1966) Handbuch der Schach-Eroeffnungen Band 22 Die Vertiedigung Caro-Kann also gives Honfi - Portisch as well as Hartz - Euwe, 1927. Kaufman doesn't even mention 6...e5, which is a shame.

Fun to see that the page number is calculated as 793 "page turns on a Kindle, using settings to closely represent a physical book." Quite a contrast to the 240 physical pages.

The book is now available as a downloadable app book: http://www.gambitbooks.com/webapp/appbooks.html

Should be an interesting book. Since Sverre was the co-author of the book "Win With the London System", I'm curious what he is going to recommend for Black against 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bf4, which can come about via the London System after 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 cxd4 4.exd4.