An Opening Surprise

This game is from a tournament played in rating groups, so all players were of about equal strength. I knew that my opponent was young, without a record of tournament play, and most likely an e4 player. So, I prepared for a Caro-Kann.

N.N - Me (Open Tournament, 2023) 

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 The Advance Variation. Black plans e6 and c5, challenging White's center.

 4.h4 The Tal Variation. It's not particularly unusual, but unmentioned in most books on Caro-Kann. I hadn't seen it before, so for me, it's was a genuine surprise. We don't like surprises in chess. They seem to trigger all kinds of thoughts, none of them helpful. "They made a mistake!", "They're just trying to provoke", and "That's a devastating novelty" are just some of them. These contradicting thoughts seem to mess up our minds so that we hard time thinking logically. 

A natural response to a h4 thrust is to play h5, stopping further advance. Here, it also happens to be the best move. However, fear of commitment often makes us settle for h6, as I did here.

4...h6 5.g4 Bh7 When we have created a retreat post for the Bishop, we feel obliged to use it. Both Be4 and Bd7 are better. 6.e6 fxe6

 

It will take a long time do develop the kingside pieces and get the King to safety. White is clearly better, but it's still playable for Black. However, I never recovered from the surprises h4 and g4, so I couldn't find a way out of it, and eventually lost the game after a rather poor performance.

Takeaway

Don't let yourself be surprised in the opening. You can always study your openings a bit deeper, but more important is to be mentally prepared for unexpected moves. When that happens, you need to sit back and think. What are they trying to  achieve? Are there any immediate threats? Can I transpose back into familiar territory?