I've been trying to expand my chess opening knowledge, hopefully to the point of having a decent/passable understanding of most chess openings. So, for no good reason at all, I was looking at the Bronstein-Larsen variation of the Caro-Kann (I don't play e4, but why not check it out)? I ran across this blog that gives some history to the variation, which makes the claim that black fell on hard times after the game Riemersma-Pietersee, Dieren 1989. I was unable to find that game in any database, but let's take a look:
I'm not sure I quite believe that this exact game was the reason why the Bronstein-Larsen "fell into utter disuse". I looked in Chessbase Online, and white is scoring 70% after 11. ...f5, but of the 23 games played from that position white hasn't played 12. Qe2. Not that it matters, obviously white is scoring well from there. In fact, white scores 70% from 8. g3, with 662 games in the database, so probably a better assessment is that the Bronstein-Larsen fell into disuse because statistically, it scores terribly for black if white plays 8. g3. The exact breakdown is 55% white wins, 30% draws, and 15% black wins, so it would be fair to say that black hardly ever wins when white plays this way. But anyway, I'll take a look at the main line based on popularity in the Chessbase Online database.
Honestly the position doesn't look like much fun to play for black, but it's only fair to look at a few Bronstein games:
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