An old book that still works today

If you're looking for a defensive system that will allow you to play strong chess openings without spending massive hours on rote memorization to counter the many of possible opening lines at white's disposal this old book, A Black Defensive System for the Rest of your Chess Career by G.M. Soltis may be for you. This focuses on defenses that have similar pawn and piece structures no matter what openings are used by white. i.e. The Caro Kann against e4 and the Slav against d4. GM Soltis Soltis shows that there are remarkable similarities between the Caro-Kann (to defend e4) and the Slav (to defend (d4), and that both systems can often evolve into similar or identical positions, thus enabling one to focus more of their time learning the familiar positions for both white attacks rather than two completely different defenses.

This is not a magic formula for success, but will allow you to play solid, time tested openings on the black side, saving time on your clock, and hours of preparation and study. Add this black defensive system to a asymmetrical opening by white with fewer mainline defences such as the King's Indian Attack, and you'll have a complete opening system that will serve you well for many years to come.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Defensive-System-Chess-Career/dp/0875681662#customerReviews

That book is at the used book store down the street.
2 dollars 🤔 maybe I'll check it out.

@mchill

One plus for this approach is that although this is a classical approach the defenses are not as popular these days. That means it is quite likely your opponent will not the positions as well as you.

@mchill said
If you're looking for a defensive system that will allow you to play strong chess openings without spending massive hours on rote memorization to counter the many of possible opening lines at white's disposal this old book, A Black Defensive System for the Rest of your Chess Career by G.M. Soltis may be for you. This focuses on defenses that have similar pawn and piece structu ...[text shortened]... come.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Defensive-System-Chess-Career/dp/0875681662#customerReviews

What does he say to do against the Tal variation of the Caro?

@BigDoggProblem

Looking at the masters rhp game explorer, it looks like h6 is the best reply.

I see you caught someone who played e6.

I hate playing against the advanced variation so quit playing the French.

@eladar said
@BigDoggProblem

Looking at the masters rhp game explorer, it looks like h6 is the best reply.

I see you caught someone who played e6.

I hate playing against the advanced variation so quit playing the French.

On my database there are 1,969 games. The move, number of times played, average fide rating, and score to white was:

4. ... h5, played 1194 times, (2,317) 59.1%
4. ... h6, played 552 times, (2292) 59.5%
4. ... Qb6, played 110 times, (2430) 46.3%
4. ... c5, played 37 times, (2384) 62.1%
4. ... Qc7, played 19 times, (2537) 21.0%
4. ... a6, played 15 times, (2506) 43.3%
4. ... other played 40 times, (1938 to 2342) 50% to 100%
4. ... f6 played twice, (2505) 25.0%

So, based on this alone Qb6 and Qc7 look like the best tries for black. The average elo of their opponents was around 2,350 in both these lines.

@deepthought said
On my database there are 1,969 games. The move, number of times played, average fide rating, and score to white was:

4. ... h5, played 1194 times, (2,317) 59.1%
4. ... h6, played 552 times, (2292) 59.5%
4. ... Qb6, played 110 times, (2430) 46.3%
4. ... c5, played 37 times, (2384) 62.1%
4. ... Qc7, played 19 times, (2537) 21.0%
4. ... a6, played 15 times, (2506) 4 ...[text shortened]... the best tries for black. The average elo of their opponents was around 2,350 in both these lines.

One has to be careful reading too much into results by percentage, for two reasons.

1) The cause of a loss could be a blunder after the opening.
2) A line can be thought good for Black, but then someone finds a strong novelty for white and renders the previous results less meaningful.

Edit: and there's also:
3) Some opening databases don't properly calculate the effect of transpositions in their percentage results. In other words, you'll score well, as long as your opponent cooperates and keeps it a Caro.

@eladar said
@BigDoggProblem

Looking at the masters rhp game explorer, it looks like h6 is the best reply.

I see you caught someone who played e6.

I hate playing against the advanced variation so quit playing the French.

...h6 is good, but perhaps not for the reason you may think.



A better line for black:

@BigDoggProblem

Thanks. You are right I was thinking of retreating the bishop to h7 which according to the rhp game explorer is losing. According to the explorer black's best move is to retreat back to c8, d7 was good as well.

@bigdoggproblem said
One has to be careful reading too much into results by percentage, for two reasons.

1) The cause of a loss could be a blunder after the opening.
2) A line can be thought good for Black, but then someone finds a strong novelty for white and renders the previous results less meaningful.

Edit: and there's also:
3) Some opening databases don't properly calculate th ...[text shortened]... results. In other words, you'll score well, as long as your opponent cooperates and keeps it a Caro.

There's too many games with too highly rated players for (1) to be reasonable (at least for Qb6), as far as (3) is concerned it's SCID and it finds number of wins from a particular position, rather than after a sequence of moves, so all transpositions are accounted for (I think). (2) is quite likely as I haven't updated my database in a few years and it would be quite easy for a novelty not to be in there.

This is one of the games, N. ... h5 is only delayed by one move:

@DeepThought

Why h5 instead of h6? Playing h5 just allowed white a nice place for his bishop.

@eladar said
@DeepThought

Why h5 instead of h6? Playing h5 just allowed white a nice place for his bishop.

...h5 stops g4 and preserves the B on the h7-b1 diagonal.

@BigDoggProblem

Did not really work in that game. Thanks, at least now I see it prevents g4.

@eladar said
@BigDoggProblem

Looking at the masters rhp game explorer, it looks like h6 is the best reply.

I see you caught someone who played e6.

I hate playing against the advanced variation so quit playing the French.

I saw that variation on my own. If they just push E6 the bishop is history. So if they do h6, I just put out my bishop for trade, thinking his bishop is the good bishop and mine is the bad bishop and the queen ends up on d3 after that exchange.

Current theory on the C-K Advance Variation is exploring

1. e4 c6; 2. d4 d5; 3. e5 c5

"Opening Repertoire, the Caro_Kann," chaps. 9-11,

by Jovanka Houska,

2015, Everyman Chess, ISBN 978-1-78194-210-9