Caro-Kann Powerbook 2021

For the Caro-Kann Powerbook an Elo average of at least 2375 was set. Thus 58 000 games from Mega and from correspondence chess met the threshold for the Powerbook, to which were added 736 000 games from the engine room of playchess.com. The Caro-Kann is considered a safe opening, since it is very rare for Black to have to put up with a compromised pawn structure. Nowadays there is quite a different way of playing the Caro-Kann. This is also reflected in the Powerbook. After 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 the main continuation is no longer 3.Nc3 dxe4, but quite clearly 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 – with statistics based on more than 175 000 games. The amount of theory has grown enormously and the Powerbook offers several interesting approaches in the search for promising side variations. An especially popular one is in the Two Knights Variation 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3, but also in the Exchange Variation 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 there has been a surprising renaissance in recent years.