Caro-Kann defence

I recently started playing the Caro-Kann defense as most of my opponents seem to target my f7 square after e4e5.(I know about Traxler counterattack but would like toplay something else too)

how good/popular is c-k? what are the main ideas? how should I plan knight-bishop activity? king side castling vs queenside castling?

~Thanks for your help in advance, KK

Hi, the Caro-Kann defence is a very solid and good opening choice. The main idea is to play d5 without having a very bad bishop on c8 like in the french defence. Then you can start your counterplay with the break c5 which is the main idea in the Advanced/Closed Caro-Kann.Another main-plan is to place your knight on f5 and "protect" it with h5 against the move g4. Therefore you have to retreat your bishop to g6 or h7. When your opponent plays aggressive and tries to win your bishop with h4 then always try to play h5 and not h6 against this.

The position of your Pawns: E6,D5,C5,(H5+G6)

The position of your Pieces:Nh6/Ne7, Nc6/Nd7, bf5, be7/bb4, Qb6, Rc8

Here is a typical line which shows the piece coordiantion of black:

Here a line which shows how to attack the white center:

At the end a game I played recently on chess.com:

Hope I could help :)

Hello Till_98

Thank you very much for the reply!  I will study the lines you posted here and try to employ in games.

The last game was awesome