History Of The Carlsbad Structure

First of all, I would thank all the members who commented on the previous blog which  has helped me immensely for preparing this blog.

After searching for the pawn structure that is shown in the picture of the thumbnail. I found the game between Janowski vs Schlechter, 1895 to the first match (link to results) , I might be wrong so might just have to check with the Mega database or something. Unfortunately I don't have the best software to access Mega database right now.  

Historically, the main early source of this particular pawn formation, which is now generally known as the Carlsbad structure, was the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit. At the end of the 19th century, the famous American player Pillsbury gave an exemplary demonstration of one of the typical plans in this structure (...). Then in the first decade of the twentieth century the Exchange Variation was played by various strong players, especially Marshall, who wrote that he often used it to avoid the Cambridge Springs Defense 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6  4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.e3 c6 6.Nf3 Qa5; instead, after 6.cxd5 exd5, the structure under discussion arises. At the present time, the exchange of pawns in the center usually occurs slightly earlier, using the move order 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5; in this way, White also avoids certain variations of the Queen’s Gambit and the Semi-Slav Defense, in particular the sharp Botvinnik System 4.Bg5 c6 5.Nf3 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 or the modern line 5...h6 6.Bh4 dxc4.

However, the big rise in the popularity of this pawn formation, and hence the name, began with the great Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) tournament of 1923, where the exchange on d5 was used specifically as a way for White to avoid the so-called Swiss Defense, then in fashion, which was based on an early ...a6, intending the manoeuvre ...dxc4, ...b5, ... Bb7,...c5, in the style of the Queen's Gambit Accepted or the Meran Semi-Slav.

Source: Zlotnik’s Middlegame Manual(2020)

Let's look at a game from the 1923 Carlsbad Tournament where this structure was popularized and name after.

So Let's look at the game mentioned above in the quotation and the game mentioned in the Tournament book of the 1923 Carlsbad Chess Tournament. There is also game similar to the theme of Pillsbury and Showalter.

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