As the title line suggests, I'm looking for some solid caro-kann players to develop a good repetoire against.  I have played it maybe twice ever to a couple wins but only after ridiculously complicated middle and endgames where I was able to capitalize on a couple mistakes.  At this stage I don't even know whether I'd rather play the Two Knights, Advance, or Breyer variations (amongst all the others) as White.

 

Anyone want to either give their advice and analysis on the White side of the Caro-Kann or play against me as black, post, message, whatever.

Me too!  I have had similar experiences and am just about as lost although I have played the Two Knights to some success following Bobby Fischer's times against it.  I think we should get actual stickied threads going on this, the French, Sicilian, etc...

 

Let me know what you find out.  Good thread.

I don't play the Caro-Kann, but as white, I've had good results OTB with the Fantasy (3. f3) and Exchange (3 exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3) Variations. The Exchange is simple to play and allows for a placid middlegame with room for tatical eruptions if you so choose. The Fantasy is underrated/underused, quite an annoying variation for black. Black players don't see it a lot, and it isn't that dificult to learn.

oneEfour,

 If you wanted to play some unrated games, I'd be willing to play the Caro-Kann against you.  I'd like to learn the openning.  In order for both of us to learn the more, I'd probably be using some other outside resources (chess engine, internet, etc...)

 Chris

Paintbucket wrote: I don't play the Caro-Kann, but as white, I've had good results OTB with the Fantasy (3. f3) and Exchange (3 exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3) Variations. The Exchange is simple to play and allows for a placid middlegame with room for tatical eruptions if you so choose. The Fantasy is underrated/underused, quite an annoying variation for black. Black players don't see it a lot, and it isn't that dificult to learn.

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 I agree that the Exchange Variation is simple to learn and play. The middlegame positions that occur are interesting. Black usually has to deal with his bad bishop  which is good for White. White attacks on the kingside and Black creates chances with a minority attack on the queenside. Im quite happy to go for the enemy King while my opponent diddles around on the otherside of the board. Happy days for White! I recommend the Exchange Variation as white.

 oneEfour wrote:

Anyone want to either give their advice and analysis on the White side of the Caro-Kann or play against me as black, post, message, whatever.

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 I go back and forth between the Scandanavian and the Caro-Kann, but lately I've played nothing but the C-K vs. 1.e4. I'd be happy to play several games as Black, vs. various White approaches, with both sides taking notes to compare at the end.

I'd also be happy to answer questions. I'm not brilliant with it, but I've got a bit of experience and think I understand the general concepts. A good introductory book on the C-K (from Black's point of view, though) is Eric Schiller's Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings.

As a Caro player, I've had the most trouble against the Panov-Botvinnik attack.  If you like tactical games and don't mind working with an isolated queen's pawn, I recommend either it or the main-line Caro.

most of my games as black start with caro-kann ... you can try and see my games if you want, i really like this opening because its solid

the advanced variation is my favorite to play 

Important tip for white against the C-K

I'm a Caro-Kann player, so it's in my best interest to not share this, but...

Typical Caro-Kann Advance Variation starts like this:

1.e4 c6
2.d4 d5
3.e5 Bf5 (getting the "bad" bishop outside the pawn chain before playing e7-e6)

As Black, I've been in this position dozens of times just in the past week, here on Chess.com and in other games. And time and time again, my opponent plays the (I guess) "natural" 4.Bd3?!, to which I quickly and happily respond 4...Bxd3 5.Qxd3 e6. If you do this as White, you are letting Black off easy. The light-square Bishop is less of a problem child for Black in the Caro-Kann than in the French, but it's still not as useful on the board as White's light-square bishop.

This is also true in the Classical Caro-Kann:

1.e4 c6
2.d4 d5
3.Nc3 dxe4
4.Nxe4 Bf5 (4...Nd7 is the slower--and I think boring--Mainline/Karpov Variation)
5.Ng3 Bg6

 

Again, don't go for the Bishop trade right away with 6.Bd3?! Bxd3 7.Qxd3 e6. Instead of offering the trade right away, you can use developing moves to push Black's bad bishop around, grab king-side space, and maybe weaken Black's pawn structure, and then trade off light-square Bishops. What's that look like? LIke this:

 

6.h4 h6
7.Nf3 Nf6!? (or 7...Nd7 8.h5 Bh7)
8.Ne5 Bh7

And now you trade off the Bishops after grabbing an edge in space and development:

9.Bd3 Bxd3
10.Qxd3

 See the difference? Granted, it's a small one. But essentially we're talking here about the difference between White maintaining their small opening edge versus just giving over and letting Black equalize without a fight. Don't let us C-K player's off so easy. Make us pay before taking that Bishop off the board.

You're not going to get wild tactics in the first few moves if Black is playing the Caro-Kann, so just resist the bloodlust for capturing pieces for a bit and concentrate on keeping Black reacting instead of acting. Contrary to its rep, the C-K can indeed lead to some serious attacking chess, but you'll have to get to the middlegame before you're going to enjoy that.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

I used to play the Caro-Kann and would be willing to take the black side for you to play against.  I am somewhat familiar with the main line, the advance, and the Panov-Botvinnik attack. 

The reason that I currently don't play the Caro-Kann is that a friend of mine who I used to play a lot of casual OTB chess with played 2)f4 which took the game into completely uncharted waters.  While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I never really understood the pros and cons of 2)f4 so I didn't really know what my objectives were.  Has anyone had any experience with or against this move?  At the time their did not seem to be any book variations on it, though that may not be the case today.

What the Caro-Kann pro and cons.  Thanks.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3.Nc3 de4 4. f3!.

Or U can try Nigel Short's system in the advaned caro-kann if you prefer positional tussles. The 3.f3 fantasy variation is quite drawish. I have alot of books on the caro-kann and found that the caro-kann is suited for good endgames players and those who prefer the quite cramped yet playeable positions. The Knights are the main weapons of the caro-kann. If you want to beat the defense I suggest you study the games of those who prefer to play it as black. Players like Lobron, Antonio, Tigran VartanovichPetrosian,Karpov, Leko, Silman, Seirawan, Adams and Botvvinik and even Kasparov in his younger years ,Schiller, Suetin. I believe the best way to beat it is to be a vertouso in the endings. An exchange of queens on e4 or b3 or b6 leads to endgames suitable to the better endgame player.

Play the Burris Gambit.  Here it is.

There's now a Caro-Kann-themed tournament!

It seems to me that playing both sides of this system in a round robin would be a great way to learn how to deal with it. Check out the Tournaments section of Chess.com to sign up.

 

 

This is a game I played against the Caro-Kann. I wanted to play the Burris Gambit,  but he played 4... Nd7. I honestly had no clue what I was doing.

(Kakabadze's rating is not 1600, but I forgot to write it, and it's somewhere around 1600.) 

mcfrazier wrote:  oneEfour wrote:

Anyone want to either give their advice and analysis on the White side of the Caro-Kann or play against me as black, post, message, whatever.

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 I go back and forth between the Scandanavian and the Caro-Kann, but lately I've played nothing but the C-K vs. 1.e4. I'd be happy to play several games as Black, vs. various White approaches, with both sides taking notes to compare at the end.

I'd also be happy to answer questions. I'm not brilliant with it, but I've got a bit of experience and think I understand the general concepts. A good introductory book on the C-K (from Black's point of view, though) is Eric Schiller's Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings.

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 hello everybody! i'm a big fan of openings such as the french,the caro-kann,Aleckine...and i play them only with black because i'm a d4 player as white! anybody interested in some ideas or some games...just contact me!cheers!

Caro-Kann is solid and CK playetrs often like slow games. As White i play Accelerated Panov-Botvinnik(1.e4 c6 2.c4) 

 

 

 

 

 

More often than not sharp and complicated middlegames with both sides having chances arises. If you're not willing to play like this just follow the main lines and you already might have some success

 

And as Black i like Classical with a set-up like this :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 White is more active and has more space but Black can suudenly break out with ...c5 or ...e5 . Blacks better pawn stucture is very resilent to attack so it's quite easy to defend. "Achiles Heel" is his position is h6 pawn. As White i played some games including Bxh6 sac and got at least 2½ of 4 points. Of course is Black finds right defence it's not easy to win but more often Bxh6 comes as a schock!

 

Good Luck with your studies, oneEfour. Hope you have learned something.

As an avid Caro player, I can say that the most annoying is to play against the Pavov-Botnivik attack. Caro players usually like solid, positional games, but this line often opens things up in a wild, atypical caro way.

For a long time i used to play this variaton(see diagram) as White:

 

I use the fantasy variation to defeat the Caro Kann.  It is a good suprise weapon as most club CK players don't know what hit them.  I gonna post 2 games I played with the fantasy variation tomorrow.  I just need to do some analysis on them.