Play the Caro-Crab: Tips and Tricks for Black's Strongest Opening

Welcome back, everyone!

I have a funny story to tell you...

Yesterday I was playing chess with my brother OTB. And I had a brilliant idea.

See, a lot of chess players have to spend hours finding the opening they think will magically boost them 200 elo.

That's what this fixes. 🦀

The Caro-Crab is an ultra-strong opening that lets you build a hard shell your opponent can't break through.

It has two major variations, each of which I will cover here. 🦀

Here's the main line:

At this point, you're ready to finish off the game!

This opening begins with the deeply calculated 1... a6!!, which asks the important question:

What if I just...didn't?

-Grandmaster Clawrus before the final game of the third Undersea Championship

This beginning refuses to abide by normal principles, 🦀 and throws opponents through a loop!

Instead, it boldly scuttles sideways into chaos, in realization that even though your pieces are very undeveloped, they form a shell that your opponent will find hard to get through. 🦀

Unfortunately, your opponent won't always be nice and play slow developing moves!

Because of this, you need this second line 🦀, which defends a major attack White has.

This is the first attack that white has. It's strong, but not excessively so, and you're doing fairly well by the end.

You may have noticed that the moves are almost identical in both PGNs. I’m not sure why, but the computer says that the small changes do make the difference, disallowing the bishop sac in the first one.

If that’s you, pat yourself on the back: you are a far better chess player than most of us patzers. 

In any case, I hear GM Clawrus calling. He wants me to finish his opening. 

So that’s the Caro-Crab!

That's all you really need to know! Here are some of the advantages of the position you'll find yourself in:

• You have no development whatsoever, and your pieces are cramped
• Your opponent is in a much better spot than you
• However, they are caught off guard and may fall apart quickly.
• You're ready to adapt to whatever they do 🦀
• They only have like 15 good moves to choose from

As you can see, you are completely lost and set up for the comeback of the century!

My friends, brilliancy is rare, perfection is rarer, but it takes a true genius to play an opening like this.

I was not disappointed by my invention. 🦀

🦀

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May your tactics (and claws) stay sharp.

*DISCLAIMER*: Grandmaster Clawrus, Chickpea, and affiliates are not responsible for being checkmated, trapped, defeated, outplayed, destroyed, wiped off the board, humiliated, forked, skewered, embarrassed, embarrassed again, getting paired against Magnus Carlsen, failing every prediction from the candidates tournament, running out of time, falling asleep mid game, etc., after playing this opening. In addition, the above parties are not responsible for blunders, mistakes, missed opportunities, botched tactics, unsound sacrifices, poor promotions, losing endgames, confused castling, forgotten En Passant, Scholars Mates, badly planned checkmate attacks, 10% accuracy, any other unsatisfactory accuracy, or playing while inebriated. Play at your own risk.

*DISCLAIMER* Grandmaster Clawrus forced me to put in the crab emojis. Please don't tell him I told you! Those claws are scary 🫣.