My old line about Bobby Fischer and the Grünfeld is that it’s an opening he played whenever he wanted to beat one of the Byrne brothers or lose a very important game. There was a period where Fabiano Caruana lost game after game on the white side of the Najdorf Sicilian, and at my much less exalted level there are certain openings where I seemed to be snakebit as well, and no matter how good my form or how well I was doing out of the opening (or at any point in the game) somehow, something bad would happen to me before the game ended.
Along these lines, behold, I bring you the Classical Caro-Kann with 8.Bd3 (rather than 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3). The idea is to keep the pawn on h4 so that it will support a later g4-g5 once Black has castled short. White has used this in a number of recent games, often getting a great, even winning position, and then drawing or losing. The latest example is from the ongoing FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Shimkent, where Elizabeth Paehtz was clearly better (with White) against Batkhuyag Munguntuul on move 15, equal after her 16th move, and…resigned after Black’s 17th move.
When I was a kid, there were TV shows where someone would perform a crazy stunt, and the show’s host would somberly intone that the performer was a trained professional; do not try this at home. Well, it looks like the trained professionals might want to give this line a pass, too.
Enjoy…and ignore the tongue-in-cheek warnings above...at your peril.