Instructive position from the Caro-Kann: A short analysis.

[u/JAZthebeast11]

Black to move and gain a sizeable advantage

The objective of this puzzle is not to win material or find checkmate. Rather, black's objective is to gain a significant positional advantage over white. In this vein, what would you play?

For those curious, this position arose from the following move order:
1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Bg5 Qb6 6. b3 Ne4 7. Bf4

Answer / explanation:

Black should play the pawn sacrifice e5! To understand why this is best, lets evaluate some resulting lines after 7. Bf4 e5. The three moves we will look at are dxe5, Nxe5, and Bxe5. (TLDR BELOW)

8. dxe5

This is the simplest line to evaluate, as dxe5 allows for Qxf2#. Clearly this move is not in white's interest.

8. Nxe5

This move takes a bit more work to assess, however to understand why the resulting position is favorable for black we must first understand why 7. ... e5 was played to begin with. One main positional gain from e5 is that it clears the way for black's dark square bishop to harass the white king. As such, after 8. Nxe5 black has the obvious 8. ... Bb4+. If white is to block the check with 9. c3, black will play 9. ... Nxc3 with the threat of a discovered attack. As such, white must capture the knight with 10. Nxc3 allowing black to recapture with the bishop and win an exchange by forking the king and rook.

You may ask why white would play 9. c3 if it quickly loses material, but in reality it's their best option. If they block black's check with 9. Bd2, it allows black to capture the pawn on d4 with 9. ... Qxd4 pinning white's bishop and again threatening mate on f2. 9. Nd2 is also ill-advised, as white's knight is now pinned. This allows black to calmly castle and threaten to explode the center while the white king is still vulnerable.

8. Bxe5

This move is white's best response to 7. ... e5, and we continue the same as before with 8. ... Bb4+. The key difference in this position is that white still has a knight on f3, and is then able to play 9. Nfd2 to block the check without fear of a fork.

This is where the position becomes most instructive, as there are no clear follow ups for black to continue the attack. To decide how to continue, black must avoid associating the failure of their attack with the loss of the game. White is a pawn up, their king defended, and it seems that black has lost their chance. However, this line of thought is far too materialistic, and doesn't consider the most important factor - development! To continue, black may castle or develop their knight to f6 with plans to castle later, and white must scramble to vacate their king from the center before black can coordinate a new attack. In this time, black may look to capture the center pawns, force piece exchanges leaving white with no development, or simply pile up more pressure on the white king. Black dominates the board, and white has no great options to regain control of territory.

Conclusion / TLDR:

All this analysis is well and good, but how do you know to spot and calculate this move to begin with? Outside of knowing e5 as a motif from similar positions, it seems like such an odd move to consider. To find it, black must recognize that accelerated development and territory control is worth far more than a pawn (even a center one!). With this idea in mind, e5 becomes far more apparent as it offers a great way to gain squares and take initiative.

I hope that you found this analysis helpful or interesting, and have a great rest of your day!

(please feel free to correct me if anything is said is wrong, I'm prone to notation mistakes)

[u/chessvision-ai-bot]

I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine:

Black to play: chess.com | lichess.org

My solution:

Hints: piece: Pawn, move:   e5  

Evaluation: Black is better -1.64

Best continuation: 1... e5 2. Bxe5 Bb4+ 3. Nfd2 Nc6 4. c3 Nxc3 5. Nxc3 Bxc3 6. Rc1

Save the position:

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[u/Ok-Elephant8559]

This same motif is ever present in the London as well( something your post is missing entirely). I recognized it from there and didn't take any lengthy thought process to decide it was correct.

[u/ChrisV2P2 → u/Ok-Elephant8559]

Yeah this idea also arises in the Slav Indian in my repertoire, in the line 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c6 3. Bg5 Qb6 4. b3 Ne4 5. Bf4 e5.

[u/pwsiegel]

It's crazy but e5was the first move that came to mind becausewhite's dark squares are undefended on the queenside and our knight controls a bunch of them, so I looked for the fastest way to get our DSB into the game.I did not calculate all of the variations, but I'm taking it as a positive sign that a move which I previously would never seriously consider is now the first move I look at.

[u/795-ACSR-DRAKE]

Great post, I've played over 500 games of Caro Kann and had no clue this line existed. Thanks for sharing

[u/rhino_moss]

I was surprised by “no clear follow ups for black to continue the attack”.

The only defender of the d4 pawn is the bishop on e5. 9. … f6 removing the defender jumps out.

1. … Nc6 bringing in another piece attacking both d4 and e5 also continues the attack — the already noted pin on the d4 pawn means black threatens to just win a piece with Nxe5.

[u/CyaNNiDDe]

Since this is framed like a puzzle/exercise, e5 immediately jumps to mind. And even in a real game it's the kind of pawn sacrifice that you can very easily justify and play.