Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c6/2. d4/2...d5/3. exd5/3...cxd5

The main line begins with 4. Bd3 (to prevent ...Bf5 while still developing) 4...Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 Bg4 7. Qb3. This line is considered to offer White a slightly better game and was tried by Bobby Fischer. The pawn structure resembles a Carlsbad structure with reversed colours, so some of the strategic ideas are analogous to the Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5).

This almost always leads to the Panov-Botvinnik Attack after c4, unless White plays 4. Bd3. Note that 4. Nc3?! would be a poor move due to the fact that the knight doesn't do much. e4 is poison, while e6 will turn d5 into a rock. Therefore, c4 followed by Nc3 is far better since then, there would be pressure on d5.

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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5

Wikipedia has related information at Caro-Kann.

• Nunns Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.
• Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.
• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.