Closing the Circle: Deep Caro-Kann for Black – Solution against the Sidelines, by GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso
Ask an experienced Caro-Kann player where the half-points actually leak away, and the answer is almost never the main lines. It is the quiet second move nobody revised in a while — the Fantasy, the King's Indian Attack, an offbeat 2.Ne2 — where preparation thins out and a comfortable position quietly drifts into something worse.
Across a long career, few players have done more to give the Caro-Kann its modern standing than GM Alexey Dreev. In this final volume he turns that authority to exactly the parts of the opening most repertoires leave half-finished.
This is the piece that makes the rest of the series hold together. Having already settled the Advance, the Modern Exchange, and the Classical in the earlier volumes, Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso close the circle here: everything White can try after 1.e4 c6 outside the main highways, gathered into one coherent answer.
What sets the volume apart
The repertoire is built to last rather than to be re-learned. Against the Panov, the authors deliberately choose 5...e6 over the heavily analysed 5...Nc6 and 5...g6, trading a maze of forcing lines for a system grounded in structures and plans you will still understand a year from now.
The same philosophy runs through the trickier sidelines. The "Apocalypse Attack" (4.Ne5) is defused with a clear setup that hands Black the initiative; the Fantasy is met with the provocative 3...Qb6 instead of walking into White's preparation; and the fashionable 2.Ne2 — a pet line of GM Rauf Mamedov — is shown to be a dubious move order rather than a real threat.
Dreev supplies the repertoire foundations, while Basso's annotations carry the concrete, move-by-move explanation — including several original ideas that turn an "annoying London" into a position Black actively wants.
Map of variations
After 1.e4 c6, here is how the material is organised:
- 2.d4 d5 3.f3 Qb6 — the Fantasy Variation, the modern way → Chapter 1
- 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Ne5 — the "Apocalypse Attack" → Chapter 2
- 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 — the flexible Nf3 move order → Chapter 3
- 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 — the Panov Attack, met with the solid 5...e6
- 6.Nf3 — the most common try → Chapter 4
- 6.c5 — White grabs queenside space → Chapter 5
- 4.cxd5 — the Accelerated Panov → Chapter 6
- 2.Ne2 d5 3.e5 — Mamedov's pet line → Chapter 7
- 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 — the King's Indian Attack → Chapter 8
- 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bf4 — the London treatment, with new ideas → Chapter 9
- 2.Nc3 d5 3.Qf3 — rare tries and surprise weapons → Chapter 10
What's inside
- 10 Chapters
- 20 test positions
- 5 training positions for interactive computer practice
- Memory Booster
- "To Go" version of every chapter
- Video instruction
- Multilingual PGN availability (English, German, French, Spanish)
Part of a complete repertoire
This volume is the final instalment of the Caro-Kann According to Dreev series. Together with the earlier volumes on the Advance, Modern Exchange, and Classical — built by the same authors — it completes a single, coherent answer to every move White can play after 1.e4 c6, designed to be studied as one body of work rather than separate fragments.
With the sidelines covered, the gaps that quietly cost points simply close. If you already play the Caro-Kann and want a repertoire with no openings you secretly hope your opponent will avoid, this is the volume that finishes the job — pick it up, fill in the last pieces, and meet anything White throws at you after 1.e4 with confidence.