magician from riga/ steiner system

Out of the 22 games that Tal and Karpov played, Karpov beat Tal 2-1 with 19 draws and Tal only wone once. Having said that, his one win against the world champ was in fashion and came out of a minor line of the Panov Attack in the Caro-Kann, known as the Steiner System. The basic concept after 1. e4 c6 2. c4!? is to grab the d5 square. The game can take one of two directions, Black can open the game up with d5, even though this loses a pawn temporarily, or keep it closed and push it towards Nimzo/Queen's Indian territory. For a look at Tal's insanely sacrificial spanking of Karpov, look here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1067017.

The opening is named after Lajos Steiner, who published a series of analytical articles in the 20s arguing that the move 2. c4 was a refutation of the Caro-Kann. At that time, the Caro was a relatively young opening and had not been explored to the depths that it has been today, so the idea that it could be refuted on the second move did not sound quite as absurd as it does now. Currently, the hot lines in the Caro are in the advance, particularly where black plays Bf5 and White plays Nc3, however, the Panov Attack contains a wealth of attacking ideas, and of course there's always the added bonus that your opponent with Black may be all prepared for an advance 15 moves deep, but not as comfortable in the Panov. After hitting Karpov's new book on the line, I've surprised myself with a couple decent wins online, much like Martin Crane from the television show Frasier did in season 3 episode 18, "Chess Pains," when he beats Frasier for the first time when he accidentally stumbles into the Panov-Botvinnik attack.