Modern Chess: Caro-Kann According to Dreev Review

"Caro-Kann According to Dreev - Part 1" is a Black repertoire against the Advance Variation only (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5), listed at 79.00 EUR for 6h 26m (as of 8 November 2026). It is not a full Caro-Kann repertoire, because Parts 2 and 3 cover the other White systems. The bigger question for a buyer now is whether to start here at all: the same authors have since published newer Advance material in 2026 that appears to change a key recommendation, and Basso has condensed the newer series into a one-course repertoire.

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Test depth: Public information only. Nobody at ChessCourseFinder has taken this course. This page is based on published documentation, pricing and reports, read on 8 November 2026. How we review explains the limits.

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What the seller lists

Modern Chess's Part 1 page shows:

• Authors: GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso.
• 14 theory chapters plus an introduction, a 15-minute overview video and a test section, with 30 interactive test positions. The page describes the course as a repertoire for Black against the Advance Variation and says it recommends the classical 3...Bf5.
• Video of 6h 26m (the description says "almost 6h", which conflicts slightly).
• Published 26 December 2024, with no update date.
• 79.00 EUR with no sale price on this course, and an "extra 5% off" when you buy two or more courses in the series.
• A "Memory Booster" and PGN download. No stated rating level.

What Part 1 covers

Part 1's chapter titles are all Advance lines, arranged by White's fourth move: four chapters on 4.h4 h5 (5.Bg5, 5.c4 and two on 5.Bd3), then 4.Bd3, 4.c4, 4.g4, 4.Nc3, 4.Nd2, three chapters on the 4.Nf3 main positions (8.0-0, 8.c4, 8.Nbd2), one on 4.Nf3 systems with c3 and one on 4.Be3 and sidelines.

Modern Chess calls the Advance "the most challenging and dangerous line in the Caro-Kann". That is the seller's view, but 14 chapters on one reply does show where the course puts its weight.

Syllabus check across the three parts

A full Caro-Kann repertoire has to answer the Advance, the Exchange, the Panov, the Classical, the Two Knights and the Fantasy, and Parts 1 to 3 together do. The table is built from the chapter lists on the Part 2 and Part 3 pages. We have not checked the lines.

Calculated from listed figures, the trilogy is 43 chapters, 90 test positions and 17h 16m of video for 237.00 EUR. That is a serious workload. Part 3 alone offers two repertoires against the Classical, so a player who wants only one can skip half of it.

Is Part 1 still the version to buy?

Probably not as a first choice, and this is the most useful thing to know before paying. The page's "three-part" description is out of date. The series link on the Part 1 page shows 13 courses, including several that return to the same openings:

The Dreev Deep Part 1 page marks its variation map "(2026 recommendation)" for 4.h4 h5 5.Bd3 Bxd3 6.Qxd3 Qa5+, and has a heading reading "Beyond the 2025 Repertoire". Part 1's chapter titles on the same line are "with 7.Bg5" and "with 7.Nf3". After 6...Qa5+ White is in check, and neither 7.Bg5 nor 7.Nf3 answers a check, so if Part 1 reaches the same position, it must be recommending something other than 6...Qa5+ there. That is our inference from the titles, not something Modern Chess says, and we have not seen the chapters.

Recommendations appear to have changed elsewhere too. Part 2's Fantasy chapter is titled "3.f3 e6", while the Express page gives "the modern 3...Qb6!?" against the same move. Older lines are not automatically bad, and a 2024 course can still be sound. But a Caro-Kann player buying today should know that the authors' own latest view may be in a different product.

The Express page says it condenses the Deep series into 11 self-contained chapters, including the Advance, Exchange, Classical, Fantasy and Panov. If you want Dreev's lines in the shortest form, that is the course to look at first: 2h 12m and 99.00 EUR, credited to GM Pier Luigi Basso alone. The per-hour cost is high (about 45 EUR, calculated), but the total is not.

The pages also conflict on the size of the newer series: Dreev Deep Part 3 refers to an "eight-course repertoire", and the Express page to a "seven-volume" series.

Price and cost per hour

As of 8 November 2026, and calculated from listed figures:

• Part 1: 79.00 EUR over 6h 26m is about 12 EUR per listed video hour, lower than the same seller's London Part 1 at about 20 EUR.
• Parts 1 to 3: 237.00 EUR over 17h 16m is about 13.70 EUR per hour, or 225.15 EUR (about 13.04 EUR per hour) if the 5% series discount applies to your order.
• All 13 listed courses: 1,047.00 EUR over 52h 57m, before discounts. The courses overlap, so you would not need them all, but the total shows how far the catalogue has grown.

The page also mentions a quantity discount without giving its size, and whether VAT is included in the EUR price was not stated. For comparison, Chessable's L'Ami Caro-Kann lists 36 hours and 822 variations at $299.98 with video, or $49.99 base (USD, as of 8 November 2026), which is about $8.33 per listed video hour with video. It is a different product with a different structure, and the base price excludes most of the video.

No refunds once you have access

Modern Chess's Terms and Conditions, last updated 29 December 2025, say that "all sales are final and non-refundable once access to digital content has been provided". The stated reasons a refund will not be granted include "dissatisfaction after access". So the free preview is your only pre-purchase check, and each page shows an introduction by Dreev, a sample chapter and a sample video. Use them to see whether the depth suits you, and read the chapter titles against the openings you actually meet.

Who it suits and who should skip it

It suits a committed Caro-Kann player who wants a grandmaster's detailed files on the Advance and is prepared to study a lot of theory on one reply. Skip it if:

• You want one purchase that finishes the opening. Part 1 covers only the Advance, and Express or a single-author course is simpler.
• You want the authors' most recent view on 4.h4 lines. Read the Dreev Deep Part 1 page first.
• You want a trainable-line database. The page describes test positions and a Memory Booster, not a line trainer with a line count.
• You are choosing your first Caro-Kann course, or you are under about 1600. Conventional coaching advice is to learn the plans and pawn structures first; that is received wisdom, not a measured result. Start with the comparison at best Caro-Kann courses.

The better-documented alternatives

The L'Ami Caro-Kann on Chessable lists its variation count (822) and price on a page we could read. Two TheChessWorld listings also exist, as shown in search listings on 8 November 2026 (we could not open the product pages directly): My Caro-Kann with Eljanov and Mastering the Caro-Kann by Schekachikhin. For the seller, see the Modern Chess review and ChessMood vs Modern Chess.

The free resource that covers similar ground

Lichess is free, and its studies and practice include user-made Caro-Kann studies of varying quality. If you are under about 1600, that plus a look at your own Caro-Kann games will show which of the six White systems you actually meet, and whether you need any of this yet. You give up a single author's consistent coverage.

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• That the series has moved on. Part 1 still calls itself the first of three, and does not mention that its authors returned to the same line in 2026.
• Whether Part 1 buyers get updates or the newer recommendation. Nothing says so.
• Which Advance course to buy. The catalogue lists at least three approaches and no guide to choosing between them.
• Rating level. None is stated on Part 1; Part 3 says only "from club players to top grandmasters".
• Whether the lines changed since 26 December 2024.
• No independent opinion of the Dreev courses turned up in our research.