THE MODERNIZED CARO-KANN/DANIËL FERNANDEZ

Description

The Caro-Kann Defence, long renowned for being a solid and reliable defence against 1.e4, is undergoing a renaissance at the moment. In addition to being a mainstay in the repertoires of a recent World Champion (Viswanathan Anand) and a 2018 World Championship candidate (Ding Liren), it is being flooded with new and creative ideas from a range of other top players, notably Anand’s Indian Olympiad teammates Vidit and Adhiban. The pawn structures in this opening leave considerable room for individual interpretation.
GM Daniel Fernandez (born 1995) has been an active and accomplished player for several years. He represented his nativd Singapore twice at Olympiads (2010 and 2012) before transferring to the English chess federation. There, he won the national classical titles at U-18 and U-21 levels, and worked to become a Grandmaster while simultaneously studying at Cambridge. The CaroKann was instrumental in his quest for that title. Currently, Daniel is known in the chess scene not only as a solid player, but also as a mentor figure to younger English players, as a producer of well-received commentary and analysis, and as a multilingual chess coach.