Mad After a Mad Caro-Kann | Road to GM, Game 54

I played a very complicated Breyer Caro-Kann in the third round of the Croatian League.

Knežević Krešimir (2052 ELO) vs Tomić Stjepan (1865 ELO), 4th A Croatian League Center, Round 3, 03/31/19

Unfortunately, all of my preparation has gone down the drain, and the opponent I was supposed to play did not play for the opposing team. I faced a 200 points higher rated player and I had no idea what he plays.

He chose the Breyer Variation of the Caro-Kann, a seldom played line which lets black equalize. I didn’t want to play the main line, which I’ve played a short time ago and it’s in the databases, so I went for an almost equally good sideline.

The opening went ok, my position was fine, and then the madness started. We castled on opposite sides, he bashed my king open and tried to attack. I defended well and managed to stave it off, almost stop the attack! I was playing against his hemmed in bishop on g2, the worse piece on the board, and if we traded off pieces, I would have a better endgame.

He blundered, and my position was all of a sudden winning, but…

1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 e5 4. Ngf3 Bg4
5. h3 Bxf3 6. Qxf3 Nf6 7. g4 h6 8. Bg2 Bc5
9. Nf1 dxe4 10. dxe4 Nbd7 11. Ng3 g6 12. O-O Qe7
13. c3 O-O-O 14. b4 Bb6 15. a4 Nf8 16. a5 Bc7
17. Be3 a6 18. c4 Ne6 19. b5 Nd4 20. Bxd4 Rxd4
21. bxa6 bxa6 22. Rfb1 Nd7 23. Ne2 Rd6 24. Qe3 Nc5
25. Nc3 Rd3 26. Qc1 Rhd8 27. Qa3 Qf8 28. Qb4 Rd2
29. Nd5 cxd5 30. Qxd2 dxc4 31. Qb4 Nb3 32. Qxc4 Nxa1
33. Qxa6+ Kd7 34. Qb5+ Ke7 35. Rxa1 Bd6 36. a6 Ra8
37. Qb7+ Kf6 38. a7 g5 39. Bf1 Bc5 40. Bc4 Bd4
41. Ra6+ Kg7 42. Bd5 Bxf2+ 43. Kg2 Be3 44. Qc6 Rxa7
45. Qxh6+

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