I own a large opening library, but whenever a player asks me to recommend a good book on the Caro-Kann I find myself at a loss for words. Why? Because there is no ground breaking work on this extremely popular opening.

As usual, the ECO offers only generic information (culled from Informant games). Other books on the Caro-Kann: Varnusz's Play the Caro-Kann is inadequate for players over the 2100 mark. Silman's The Dynamic Caro-Kann is still the best reference work on the Bronstein-Larsen variation, but it's now rather old and it only covers this one offshoot of the Caro. Karpov's and Beliavsky's The Caro-Kann in Black & White dates back to 1994 and is rather general (completely inadequate for players 2000 and above). The Caro-Kann books by the Italian company Editrice are absolutely awful (very expensive and very bad...what a concept!).

Books that deserve a mention but are significantly out of date are: Silman's Winning With the Caro-Kann Defense (1993), Kasparov's Caro-Kann: Classical 4...Bf5 (one of the very best Caro books ever written and still packed with useful information, even thought it dates back to 1984) and Schwarz's thorough book on the Caro-Kann (from way back in 1966!).

The book I'm reviewing, Easy Guide to the Panov-Botvinnik Attack, only looks at this one system for White and claims to be "the first to give detailed, systematic coverage to this important opening." This isn't quite true. Eric Schiller wrote a three book series on the Panov-Botvinnik ($9.95 each from Chess Enterprises, Inc.) back in 1994. However, where Aagaard (an International Master) freely tosses his opinion about (which I respect) and also offers a reasonable amount of original analysis (which I really like), Schiller explains his relative lack of evaluations in the following candid sentence: "Frankly, my own level of chess understanding is not up to the task, and would lead only to misevaluations."

Where Schiller's Panov-Botvinnik series can't be taken seriously (does "Fritz--assisted database--dump" come to mind?), Aagaard's work has a lot to commend it. His explanations of typical ideas and plans are excellent, and the fact that he plays this system with White gives his words some weight.

Unfortunately, the book covers only selected lines, often tossing certain variations into the garbage heap with little or no fanfare. This is useful for lower rated players since it simplifies what they need to look at (and the lower rated player is indeed his target audience). However, an IM desperately looking for a serious (and highly detailed!) Caro-Kann book will experience a bit of a letdown.

Of course, this book was designed "to present possible repertoires for both White and for Black." Mr. Aagaard freely admits that he had to leave out quite a bit of stuff, but his omissions are carefully planned, as explained in the following lines from his foreword: "I have chosen the repertoires from the simple concept that what I like with White, I suggest for White, while what makes me most worried to play against with White, I have suggested for Black. I hope that this has not excluded everyone, even though I know that devotees of some lines might be disappointed by this book."

I was disappointed (because I was dreaming of so much more), but I still have to admit that this is, at the moment, the best book out there on the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. In fact, it's almost a must-buy for Panov-Botvinnik fanatics and for Caro-Kann aficionados.

A good job aimed at the general tournament player, but who's going to step forward and write a really advanced book on this opening?

YOU CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT