“I believe the best tribute I can pay to this book is that, shortly after starting reading it, I felt the temptation to play the Caro-Kann… This is a very well written book, with a description of both sides’ typical ideas; I cannot imagine a better way of converting into a Caro-Kann player.”
GM Zenon Franco Ocampos, Jaque
“Schandorff’s work on this book is of the highest quality and presents the reader with a total repertoire against 1.e4. The introduction indicates that the book was written to be useful for players up to GM level and I can see that to be true.
This is the 3rd book I have seen in the “Grandmaster Repertoire” series from Quality Chess. The publishers seem to take seriously questions about the quality of their books as the pages are clear, binding and covers are good. Quality Chess has good quality books that are well worth the money… I recommend this book to anyone who currently plays or is planning to take up the Caro.”
Bill McGeary, Chessville (full review)
“Outstandingly impressive… a top-class repertoire based on the 4…Bf5 Caro-Kann… Schandorff emphasises throughout that his approach is to equip Black to play for a win, and he does a fine job.”
Steve Giddins, British Chess Magazine
“Lars Schandorff’s second chess book is a classic repertoire book, this time from Black’s point of view. The Caro-Kann is a Danish speciality; Larsen, Danielsen, Rasmussen and Berg have loyally defended the ‘poor man’s defence’ and enriched it with new ideas. However, Schandorff’s book is not especially Danish, as the repertoire is based on the most modern lines…
What is on offer is a healthy and positionally-based repertoire with a lot of good analysis and explanations.”
GM Peter Heine Nielsen, Skakbladet
“In the good old days the main line Caro Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5) was a drawing weapon. That image is destroyed by Lars Schandorff in his excellent new book The Caro-Kann. It is published under Quality Chess’ series Grandmaster Repertoire – a series that keeps its pledges. At least I don’t have anything prepared that the book does not deliver an answer to. Terrifying!”
GM Sune Berg Hansen, Politiken
“The Caro-Kann has long had a reputation as being solid but a trifle dull, especially the main lines with 4…Bf5. That might have been true in the past when Black met the main lines where White castled queenside by following suit, but things started to change in the early 1980s when Bent Larsen started castling kingside. This approach didn’t catch on in a big way until the last decade when players like Bareev, Motylev and Jakovenko started using it regularly and even the elite (Kramnik, Anand and Topalov) gave it a try. Danish Grandmaster Lars Schandorff’s new book is based on this new interpretation of the Caro-Kann as a dynamic weapon…
This is primarily a theoretical work but Schandorff provides plenty of lively prose to explain what is going on. The clean layout, two to three diagrams per page and sturdy binding make The Caro-Kann easy to use like other Quality Chess books. This book can be strongly recommended to players rated 1800 on up who play the 4…Bf5 Caro-Kann or interested in learning it. The Caro-Kann can also be recommended to Caro-Kann players who prefer 4…Nd7 or 4…Nf6 as two thirds of the book is devoted to non-3.Nc3/Nd2 lines. This book will hold some interest for those who don’t play the Caro but find themselves in Panov-Botvinnik or 2.c4 lines – likely by transposition via 1.c4 c6.”
IM John Donaldson
