The Dynamic Caro-Kann: A Modern Repertoire for Black – Part 1
The Caro-Kann has spent most of its life being praised for the wrong thing. Solid. Sound. Structurally impeccable. All true — and all of it has left the opening with a reputation as the defence you choose when a draw would do. GM Abdulla Gadimbayli picked it up for precisely the opposite reason.
He is candid about how he arrived there. A grandmaster from Azerbaijan rated 2524, he spent much of his career struggling for a reliable answer to 1.e4 — and his style, by his own account, has never leaned towards solid games. For a long time the answer was 1...e6. Then he turned to 1...c6, and found something he had not expected: an opening offering an unusual number of ways for Black to play for the win. This course is the result of that work, and his first for Modern Chess.
A repertoire built to play for a result
What holds Part 1 together is not a wall of theory but a consistent attitude: in every line, Black is looking for the version of the position that keeps winning chances alive.
That attitude shows in the concrete choices. In the classical main line after 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4, Gadimbayli recommends 4...Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 — the recapture towards the centre, giving Black rapid development, the open e-file, and the ...Re8+ resource that shapes the whole middlegame. He calls it the easiest of Black's options, and it is also the one that leaves the most play on the board.
Then comes the move that gives the repertoire its character. After 6.c3 Bd6 7.Bd3 O-O 8.Qc2 Re8+ 9.Ne2, Black plays 9...h5!? — an aggressive bid for space on the kingside, in a position where most repertoires are content to complete development quietly. It is the clearest statement of what this course is for.
Against everything else — the Panov, the Exchange, the Fantasy, the modern 2.Nf3 systems, the reversed King's Indian with 2.d3 — the same principle applies: find the line that gives Black a fight rather than a comfortable equality.
Variation map
1.e4 c6
- 2.f4 and other rare second moves → Chapter 1
- 2.Ne2 and 2.c3 → Chapter 2
- 2.d3 — the reversed King's Indian setup → Chapter 3
2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5
- 4.cxd5 — without the Panov → Chapter 4
- 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 — the Panov Attack
- 6.c5 and other sixth-move tries → Chapter 5
- 6.Nf3 — the main direction → Chapter 6
2.Nf3 d5
- 3.exd5 and rare tries → Chapter 7
- 3.e5 — the modern challenge → Chapter 8
- 3.d3 — popular today → Chapter 9
- 3.Nc3 — the Two Knights → Chapter 10
2.d4 d5
- 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 — the Exchange Variation → Chapter 11
- 3.f3 — the Fantasy Variation → Chapter 12
- 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 — the classical main line
- 4.f3 and sidelines on moves 4–9 → Chapter 13
- 6.c3 Bd6 7.Bd3 O-O 8.Qc2 Re8+ 9.Ne2 h5 10.O-O → Chapter 14
- 10.Be3 — preparing to castle long and strike in the centre → Chapter 15
Course features
- 15 chapters
- 30 test positions
- 5 training positions for computer practice
- Memory Booster
- To Go version of every chapter
- Video instruction
- Multilingual PGN availability (English, German, French, Spanish)
Completing the picture
Part 1 answers everything White can try except one: the Advance Variation with 3.e5, the most popular modern main line, which receives its own dedicated treatment in Part 2. Together, the two parts give Black a full and consistent answer to 1.e4.
Work through the lines, test yourself on the thirty positions, and you will begin to see what drew Gadimbayli to 1...c6 in the first place — not the safety the Caro-Kann is famous for, but the winning chances hiding underneath it.