♕ FULL COURSE: [ Ссылка ]
♕ 10 GM SECRETS: [ Ссылка ]
♕ MORE: [ Ссылка ]
[ Ссылка ] | [ Ссылка ]

Crush the Caro-Kann with the Fantasy Variation!

If you like attacking chess, then you probably move your king pawn on your first move. But, if Black responds with the Caro-Kann Defense, do you have a method for attacking this solid position?

In this excellent video lesson from GM Joel Benjamin, taken from the A Decade of Benjamin Mega Bundle, he shows us a great game between two real fighters: GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Baadur Jobava, where the former plays a creative and surprising variation against this problematic defense.

His 3.f3 is the beginning of the Fantasy Variation (see diagram), an attacking variation full of traps and tactical ideas that will surprise almost all of your opponents.

Against it, the main variation is 3...dxe4 4.fxe4 e5!?, which leads to tactical positions - exactly what the White player was hoping for and, most probably, not what the typical Caro-Kann player wants to see!

Many monographs and books recommend Black plays the more solid 3...Qb6!?, which is what Jobava chooses. But "Nepo" surprises him with the shocking 4.a4!, with the idea of expelling the Black Queen from the comfort of her powerful square.

This intriguing move is, indeed, a strong novelty that breathes new life into the variation. Jobava clearly didn't expect this and start playing slowly and without precision, which results in a very bad position by the 12th move!

GM Joel Benjamin analyzes this variation exhaustively, coming up with a lot of suggestions for both sides using this and other great games. And the conclusion is great news for 1.e4 players: White is at least OK (and even better in most variations!)

If you want to improve your play in every phase of the game, then check out the huge A Decade of Benjamin Mega Bundle and learn from the incredible analyses of GM Joel Benjamin!

свернуть