The line with 11. Nf4 and 12. Qd1 is an excellent sideline choice for White because Black must exactly know what the antidote is: g6 is for sure wrong which can be seen in the results of the games and more objectively with engines.
Franceco Rambaldi covers the Nf4+Qd1-line in his book "The Caro-Kann revisited" from 2020 and calls it "surprisingly dangerous" and "fully independent from the from the 11. h3 variation". The second comment is very important because Black must react in a way which is uncommon in this opening line. By the way: Lars Schandorff does not mention the line in his newer Caro-Kann book from 2021 although the Rambaldi book is one of his references.
So what is the correct plan? The white queen wants to sneak behind the black pawn on h4 which needs now the assistance of the black queen. Blacks plan has to be
- play Nf8 to protect h7 and to make room for the black queen
- bring the black queen to d7 so that Qg4 is possible, but ...
- ... because of h3 this needs to be prepared by playing Qc7 first to make white play g3
The typical move order is therefore 10. 0-0 h4 11. Nf4 Nd7 12. Qd1 Nf8 13. Qh5 Qc7 14. g3 Qd7 and White can currently not take on h4 because of 15. Qxh4 g5 back wins and 15. gxh4 Bxf4 16. Bxf4 Qh3 with at least equality for black.
Logical moves for White are therefore after 14. ... Qd7 e.g.
- either normal development e.g. 15. Bd2 and now the dynamic Bxf4 16. Bxf4 g5 17. Bd2 Qh3 =
- or moving the Nf4 away so that Black has to take on g3. Rambaldi recommends to go to an endgame with 15. Ng2 hxg3 16. hxg3 Qh3 (c5 is also an option which he does not mention).
Here is one example game. It is on chess.com titled tuesday 2550 level but just a blitz game with some inaccuracies ... and a funny ending which shows that also on that level you can blunder instructively under time pressure in a basic 2 versus 2 pawn endgame
[Event "Titled Tuesday intern op 15th Sept"]
[Site "Chess.com INT"]
[Date "2020.09.15"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Nasuta, Grzegorz"]
[Black "Sadhwani, Raunak"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B15"]
[WhiteElo "2553"]
[BlackElo "2545"]
[PlyCount "124"]
[EventDate "2020.09.15"]
[EventType "swiss (blitz)"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 198 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2020.11.30"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2020.11.30"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ exf6 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8.
Qc2 Re8+ 9. Ne2 h5 10. O-O h4 11. Nf4 Nd7 12. Qd1 Qc7 13. g3 Nf8 14. Qh5 Qd7
15. Ng2 hxg3 16. hxg3 Qg4 17. Qxg4 Bxg4 18. Bf4 Be7 19. Rfe1 Ne6 20. Bd2 Bd6
21. Ne3 Bf3 22. Be2 Be4 23. Bf1 Ng5 24. Bg2 Nf3+ 25. Bxf3 Bxf3 26. Nf5 Bc7 27.
Bf4 Bxf4 28. gxf4 Rad8 29. Re3 Bd5 30. Rae1 Rxe3 31. Rxe3 Be6 32. Ng3 g6 33. a3
Kg7 34. f5 gxf5 35. Nh5+ Kh6 36. Nf4 Re8 37. Kh2 Kg7 38. Kg3 a5 39. Nd3 b6 40.
Nf4 Kf8 41. Kf3 a4 42. Kg3 Re7 43. Kf3 Re8 44. Kg3 Ke7 45. d5 cxd5 46. Nxd5+
Kd6 47. Nxf6 Rh8 48. Kf4 Rh1 49. Ne8+ Kc5 50. Ng7 Kc4 51. Nxe6 fxe6 52. Rxe6 b5
53. Re5 Rb1 54. Re2 Kb3 55. Kxf5 Rxb2 56. Rxb2+ Kxb2 57. f4 Kxc3 58. Ke6 b4 59.
axb4 a3 60. b5 a2 61. b6 a1=Q 62. b7 Qa6+ 0-1
Pages: 1
J-S Christiansen beating the exf6 C-K in blitz (Read 1453 times)
