I don't know who Pawn Riot is. In one of his forum posts he indicated he was 190 ECF. If true this is not far off master level and I have seen players of this strength win against IMs and GMs at weekend tournaments. From my point of view the 45 ECF point deficit means I could expect to gain 1 draw in 10 games OTB.

A long time ago I played the Caro Kann. Eventually I realized that I scored around 30% with it whereas with 1...e5 my ratio was a good 10-15% better. My character type prefers symmetry evidently!

Psychological as well as somewhat agricultural! When a strong player makes a theoretically dubious move like this you know they are aiming for a miniature! The trap is that you will go for some sort of direct refutation and leave yourself more vulnerable to attack. Both players are quickly on their own resources which also suits the stronger player when the difference is this wide.

Prevents Nd4 breaking up the attack on f7.

I don't have much experience with this opening. I know that professional hackers want to play g4-g5 to dislodge the Nf6.

g4 is clearly important to him!

Aiming to relieve the pressure on f7 and perhaps play Be6 and aim for d5.

Now if Nxc4 dxc4 concentrates pressure on d5 and this knight may go there supported by the pawns. With the centre secure you can expect 0-0-0 and a kingside pawn push.

Otherwise Na5 is pointless. Black gains the two bishops and doubles the c pawns. White is keeping Black's central pawn breaks under wraps.

White has an unorthodox set up against my neat and tidy position. Should I have played an early h5 and castled Q-side, after all I saw this coming?