A Novelty in the Exchange Caro-Kann | Road to GM, Game 71

A game in the Exchange Caro-Kann in which I played an interesting new move I found during my preparation.

Dejanovic T. (1834) Tomic S. (1910)
Gradište Open 2019, Round 5, 06/26/2019, Caro-Kann, Exchange

In round 5 I faced a NM, rated over 2000 national. It was a serious game, and I had a couple hours to prepare. She always plays the exchange variation against c6 (for some reason many people do), so I had to find something new against it.

I’ve played a lot of games against it and I always chose a new variation to make sure I can get my opponents out of their prep. For this game I had a really hard time finding an interesting line I’ve never played before.

After a few hours I found a very simple move which seemed incredibly strong! The engines hate it, and give a huge advantage to white, but it’s really unclear why. It seems that white is going to have to play against his normal plans to try and refute the move. It’s Nd7! A retreating move which is prophylaxis against white’s normal plan of controlling e5. It simply reinforces the square.

I just couldn’t see a good plan for white after that. I ended up playing it in the game, as it was almost impossible for white to avoid entering the position. She didn’t really attempt to punish it and I got what I wanted. Not an advantage, but a position which was much easier to play for me than for her.

I knew exactly what I had to do. And that’s what happened. I put pressure along the semi-open c file and managed to build on my small advantage until she made a mistake. I’m happy about the move! I’ll analyze it much deeper though! Work, work!

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