Caro-Kann Defense

Overview

The Caro Kann Defense is one of the widely known openings for black. The main goal of the opening is to:

• Put pressure on white's bid for the center
• Use the light-squared bishop to block white's development
• Use the dark-squared bishop to launch on attack on the d-pawn with the f-pawn if white chooses to play the Advance Variation
• Launch a deadly attack on white's kingside later on in the game (similar to the way it is done in the King's Indian Defense)
• Use the queenside to play around the center and attack white, majority of whose pieces are probably higher up the ranks, leaving the king vulnerable

If played correctly by both sides, the Caro Kann usually leads to a draw. However, due to the high amounts of tension in the position, any slip-up is enormously costly, and leads to a huge advantage for the other side. So, I would not recommend playing this opening in bullet or blitz games (trust me, I've tried).

Advance Variation

In this variation, White chooses to advance the e-pawn to e5, instead of trading. Usually, a position like this is what you will end up with:

This does block the black knight from coming on to f6, but it leaves you with a chance to attack the d4 pawn. After pushing the e-pawn to e6, the diagonal for black's dark-squared bishop gets opened, allowing for c5 to be played, attacking d4. White either has to take, or defend, with majority of players opting to trade. A few variations are listed below:

The c6 variation, however, leaves black with a very little development, and a fragile center control. Therefore, it must be avoided, and development should be carried out in this way:

There may be a lot of variations here, but it is simply not possible for me to go through each and every one of them. However, a question arises. Should Black even push the e-pawn in the first place?

The answer is, no, not necessarily. As you may have noticed, this blocks the light-squared bishop, which is a very important asset in black's attack. So, a second variation arises, where the bishop is developed before pushing the e-pawn:

However, white may try to trade the bishops by simply moving the light-squared bishop to d3. This position may arise:

In this position, both sides are equally balanced, but both of them have the option of exchanging pawns, opening up the center, trading pieces, and accelerating into an equal endgame.

Therefore, the Advance Variation usually leads to a draw, if played correctly by both sides. However, black has plenty of options to go for a risky but rewarding tactic, which may allow black to win the center. If white is not familiar with the opening, they will struggle to hold their position. Therefore, it is vital to study the Caro-Kann, even if you do not plan on applying it to any of your games.