Grob It While You Kann

Fans of my Caveman Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf4 4.h4) will want to check out NM Dana Mackenzie's series on the even more primitive advance with 4.g4!? discussed so far in two articles: Grob It While You Kann and More Madness in the Caro-Kann. I really like Dana's writing and his lectures (at ChessLecture.com). He knows how to make chess fun.

Caveman Blitz

Goeller-Kernighan, Casual 5-minute
White to play and win.

My apologies to anyone who came to the club to participate in the Five Minute Tournament that was listed on our club calendar. I had not been attending regularly and was surprised to learn that the Kenilworth Chess Club Championship under-1800 event is still going on, and not expected to conclude until the end of the month, making a blitz event impossible. I will try to arrange a make-up event for early May, to coincide with the awards ceremony for the championship.

Meanwhile, there were lots of casual blitz games at the club last night.

I played an interesting game that featured an unusual treatment of the Caveman Caro-Kann by Black (and one not covered in my article). It was my only win in many tries against recent Westfield CC Blitz champion NM Mark Kernighan. The game began 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 Qc8!? (not a completely new move, but Mark has a novel idea) 5.c4 dxc4!? 6.Bxc4 Be6!? Unfortunately for Mark, the Caveman lived up to its name and he ended up getting clobbered (see diagram above).