This is only the second Caro-Kann book I've reviewed, simply because so little is written about this highly popular opening (and what's written is often lame or useless). My first review on the Caro was Aagaard's book, Easy Guide to the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. There, I mentioned other books that were reasonable (though many of these were out of print), so the interested reader should take a look at the Panov-Botvinnik review if they want more Caro-Kann information.

Though I would love to see some master-work on this opening (perhaps a two volume set with each book bursting its seams at 400 + pages), at the moment smaller books are slowly coming out on individual Caro-Kann lines. This would be fine if they extensively looked at these variations, but they don't. Instead we get "easy guide" books, which means that a tremendous amount of material has to be crammed into 120-140 pages. In some ways, this format is nice, since it makes study easier by getting rid of less important information. The negative side, though, is that someone else is making that decision for you, and thus lots of potentially interesting lines and ideas are tossed into the rubbish bin.

The topic of this review, Main Line Caro-Kann by Neil McDonald, stuffs all the main lines (everything after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4) into 143 pages. When we realize that Kasparov's excellent Caro-Kann: Classical 4...Bf5 was 148 pages alone (that was back in 1984, there is much more information available today on this critical system), and that my Dynamic Caro-Kann (covering lines with 4...Nf6 and written back in 1989) was 189 pages, we have to accept that the author simply can't do complete justice to this opening in the space allotted. Nevertheless, Mr. McDonald managed to do a much better job than I would have thought possible.

A nice introduction explains some of the key ideas of this opening in clear, informative, language. Then he immediately jumps into the Modern Smyslov System with 4...Nd7 (Karpov's favorite line) 5.Ng5. Using up-to-date games to illustrate what's been happening theoretically over the last several years, it instantly becomes clear that old lines and basic analysis (critical if you're just learning this opening) will have to be found in other sources. Okay, that's all part of the plan. What's heartening is that McDonald picks excellent examples, ties them together nicely, and also offers up a larger than usual amount of original analysis, showing us that he took this project very seriously.

The author makes his way through every important line, and ends each chapter with a Summary. I found Chapter Four, Modern Classical Main Line with 7...Nf6 (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nf6), to be particularly interesting since this is the first detailed analysis I've seen since 7...Nf6 became all the rage (many traditionalists react with horror when they see 7...Nf6, but I should mention that Kasparov, in the aforementioned 1989 work, gave 7...Nf6 his stamp of approval).

Another system that interested me is 4...Nf6. Here we see one of the flaws with the book's minimalist stylistic format. The author mentions (after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6) the possibility of 5.Ng3. Since no important modern game featured this rather lame (in my opinion) move, McDonald paid very little attention to it (he mentioned the old game Sax-Larsen, Tilburg 1979, where Black played 5...g6, and he also noted that 5...c5 and 5...Nbd7 are both possible). However, 5.Ng3 is a popular move on the amateur level, and I've always felt that 5...h5! is the best response to White's Knight retreat. Thus we see this old and very strong recipe relegated to obscurity (in other words, a Caro-Kann player who only owned this book wouldn't know 5...h5 existed).

Still in the confines of the 4...Nf6 system, I was happy to see an analysis on one of White's most dangerous replies: 5.Nxf6+ gxf6 (5...exf6 is also quite playable. The little known game Gufeld-Silman, Los Angeles 1987 went 6.Nf3 Bd6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.0-0 Bg4 9.Qd3 when I demonstrated a new idea: 9...Qd7! 10.Re1 a5 11.a4 Na6 12.c3 Nc7 13.Bd2 Bf5 and the game was agreed drawn, though Black has a very comfortable position) 6.Ne2 Bf5 7.Ng3 Bg6 8.h4 h5 9.Be2 Nd7 10.c3 Qa5 11.a4!, ignoring the h5-pawn and instead preparing to rush his queenside pawns forward in an attempt to overwhelm Black's King. This is an idea of IM Doug Root, which wasn't known to me when I faced it in 1987: (the following game was published in The Player's Chess News and Grandmaster Rodriguez, a subscriber, subsequently used it to great effect in his own games) 11...0-0-0 12.b4 Qc7 13.a5 e5 14.a6 b6 15.0-0 e4 (Now thought to be best, though this isn't completely clear to me. I think 15...f5!? deserves serious consideration) 16.b5 c5 (This very natural move isn't even mentioned by McDonald. Instead, he gives 16...Ne5!? 17.bxc6 f5 18.Bg5 Ng4 [18...Be7 might be the way to go if McDonald's line doesn't work out] 19.Bxd8 Qxd8 20.Bxg4 hxg4 21.h5 Qh4 when he feels that "Black has a very menacing attack." Well, I wouldn't touch such a line without putting hours and hours of analysis into the position. It's certainly extremely interesting: 22.Qb3 Bd6 23.Qd5 Kc7 24.Rfb1 Rxh5 25.Nxh5 Qh2+ 26.Kf1 Qxh5! 27.Ke2 g3+ 28.f3 Qh2 29.Rg1 exf3+ 30.Kd3 and I don't see anything for Black. Of course, there might be some huge improvement earlier, but this is a review and not a theoretical article. In other words, you do the work and feel free to let me know what you've discovered!) 17.Qb3 Kb8 18.Bc4 Rh7 19.Ne2 Bd6 20.g3 Rc8 21.Ra4? (Correct was 21.Bd5 when it's hard for Black to untangle his pieces. In fact, the assessment of 21.Bd5 might determine the fate of 16...c5) 21...Bf5! and Black stood well in Root-Silman, American Open 1987, though I eventually went wrong and lost like a dog. As you can see, this whole line is relatively unexplored and I'm sure that lots of new ideas are waiting to be unearthed.

McDonald's Main Line Caro-Kann is a very welcome addition to the existing literature. I enjoyed looking it over, found lots of information that I wasn't aware of, and appreciated the amount of work he obviously put into the project. A must buy for players that go into these lines as White or Black.

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