A French player's thoughts on the Caro-Kann

Finally decided to try out the Caro-Kann at this week's chess club, and got 2 relatively easy wins against otherwise decent players.  Didn't change my mind about the opening itself - it is slower and less dynamic than the French Defense - but I do think I understand its appeal to the amateur player a bit better.

Following Petrosian's example (Petrosian did get excellent results with it), I treated the C-K as a delayed French Defense, and the extra tempo afforded to white gives the opponent another turn to overextend - which both of my opponents this week did.  Of course, this is still hoping for the opponent to blunder (as Lasker taught us, hope is not a strategy), but a lot of seemingly innocuous pawn moves do turn out to be serious mistakes.

Still prefer the French Defense (which forces white to defend a weakness on d4), but I must admit it's a nice change-of-pace to have in the arsenal.  Hypermodern positional rules still apply, and since I have read My System, this is the kind of opening I can understand intuitively.

I myself have played the Caro-Kann for a very long time and have even got several bits of help to improve theory with it. I have a good friend who plays the French defense and in our countless games I agree that it can be tricky for white to defend d4, however it does become second nature after playing against it so many times.

Using the Caro-Kann has won many games against players that could often beat me. I tend to play it because people who are not versed in it struggle against it, and people who are versed in it, can still be disadvantaged if they play into theory. It is also nice in the Caro to get the light squared bishop out so it does not become a problem in the French. Regardless both opening are great opening and can carry people up to the ratings of 1500 or higher and still improve their positional play with experience in unique positions. However the Caro-Kann does have at least 6 important lines any serious Caro player needs to learn; Fantasy, Panov, Advanced, Exchange, Two Knights, and Classical. So it can be overwhelming for some players unexperienced in learning openings.

The Caro to me is preferable over the French since it can be more dangerous for white whereas in the French white can sort of improv after playing c3 for a couple moves.

The Caro-Kann is more dynamic as Bc8 is not locked in. But the French is probably more defensive as e6 is a developing move.

The Breyer is also a line that requires attention. While rarely played, it remains an incredibly strong weapon for White to simply enter a better endgame on move 5 and may be the single best way to play against the Caro-Kann.

The Tal variation (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 with black forced to play 4. ..h5! in reply) is also important to know, as it calls into question the value of developing the light square bishop early. I have had superb results with this line against the C-K. Getting the c8 bishop out doesn't mean much if you have no other pieces to coordinate with it, and this line often cripples black's kingside while gaining tempo.

No, French is more dynamic..

Everyone who tries to even slightly defend the caro kann is stinky!!!

why

It's nice to expand our repertoires. Sometimes, just by trying different things, we end up finding new secondary defenses, to slot into our toolbelt.

And the appreciation you found for the Caro-Kann was just after playing it for a few games. At this point, there would still be insights and concepts in the defense that remain unknown to you - subtleties that can only be discovered through experience.

Suppose you played it a few hundred more times - imagine how much more you'd appreciate about it then ...

Touché.

I do play the French too, though. But I don't play the Winawer - I prefer the Burn.

My former chess coach used to be all about the Winawer. He advocated it for all his young students. "Why do we play the WINawer? Because we like to WIN!" he used to say.

the caro is much slower and black has to spend alot of tempo to get his lightsquared bishop out and to play e6 then c5. during this time white can do quite alot to attack black and make his position crunched or passive

variations such as the tal or bayonett attack simply dont allow an early c5 due to black being put in a passive position and being forced to defend

Wasn't expecting this thread to come alive like this after six months without a reply. As a French player, I usually opt for the vastly-underrated Rubinstein Variation.

As for developing the c8 bishop early in the Caro-Kann, I don't think it's necessary. Check out Tigran Petrosian's games with the C-K. He didn't usually play the regular 3. ..Bf5, in fact it's most often a Steinitz Variation (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4) - which is the C-K's closest analog to the Rubinstein French. When the bishop does come out, he more often moves it to g4 to delay white's development before trading it off for the white knight on f3. When Petrosian does play e6 early, it's almost always without developing the light-square bishop, and followed by a later c5 - simply a delayed French Defense.

That's why I don't usually develop the bishop to f5 - it's just a target there (as noted earlier, I usually play the Tal Variation against the classical line). I think 3. ..e6 is the best response to the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann, which prepares for c5 quite nicely. Even then, you're hoping for further over-commitment by white (such as 4. Nc3?! c5! and white's center is crippled), but white does not have to play along (4. Nf3 and 4. c3 are both valid responses).

This seems to be a general theme in the C-K - a lot of natural-seeming developing moves for white in the opening turn out to be rather dubious. At the end of the day, though, someone with Nimzowitsch's rules in mind won't be led astray playing against it, and in those cases, the extra tempo black affords to white usually has serious consequences.

Everything you just said is 100 percent wrong!

The truth is, the French is far more dynamic than the Caro-Kann is. Black goes for an immediate attack at White's center and queenside at the cost of making his light-squared Bishop bad. He is willing to allow his kingside to go to shreds (See the Poisoned Pawn or the 4...Qxd5 Tarrasch) to get a raging attack on the queenside and in the center. In fact, the French is a close relative to the Sicilian, particularly the 2...d6 Sicilians. The difference is which color complex Black occupies. In the Najdorf lines with ...e5, Black occupies the dark squares, has a backwards pawn on a semi-open file on d6 that is well guarded by a bad bishop on e7 or f8 and White often has an isolated pawn on e4. If Black gets in ...d5 safely, White is almost always worse. In the French, Black has his pawns on e6 and d5, often against an isolated pawn on d4. Black occupies the light squares with a well defended backwards e-pawn on a semi-open file guarded by a bad bishop on d7 or c8 and like the Sicilian, gets a raging queenside attack in return. Just like d5 in the Sicilian, if Black gets in ...e5 safely, it is often lights out for White. In both cases, in return for the attack, Black is saddled with a Bad Bishop and a backwards pawn on a semi-open file. The difference is on which color complex.

The Caro-Kann is a slower, more positional defense where Black's primary goal is to be free of weaknesses. His pawn structure in the center is often g7-f7-e6-c6-b7 with the Rook pawns either on their original square or on the 6th rank. In return for the slow play, he gets his Bishop out and is not saddled with a backwards pawn on an open file, but it takes him 2 moves with the c-pawn just to begin to chip away at White's center. Also, he has only 1 center pawn, the e-pawn, to White's 1, the d-pawn, whereas in the Sicilian and French, while backwards on an open file, Black has 2 central pawns and they are hard to attack versus White's 1 pawn - e in the Sicilian, d in the French. The Caro-Kann is the one that is "Defensive" (using your terminology) while the French is not defensive at all.

Against e4, if you want an attack and to try to get at White quickly at the risk of your king being unsafe, play the Sicilian or French. If you want a calmer game and King safety and a lack of weaknesses is your priority, play the Caro-Kann or 1...e5.

I did that for a while. Played the Taimanov Sicilian in the early 2010s, the Berlin in the late 2000's, the Petroff in the late 2010's, the Caro-kann in the mid-2010's.

Since then, I figured our that I do not need multiple defenses to e4 to get diverse positions.

Now, literally all I play is the French. That said, I'll play the Winawer, which is about the wildest opening that exists in chess, and I'll play the ultra-solid, albeit passive, Rubinstein Variation, and everything in between including the Classical, McCutchen, Portisch-Hook (rather than allowing the Poisoned pawn) or 7...Kf8-Winawer.

Same with the Tarrasch - play the Rubinstein, the Open Tarrasch with ...exd5 (IQP center), Closed Tarrasch (IQP for White vs backwards e-pawn on an open file for Black), etc.

So now, it is all French all the time for me against 1.e4.

Already that confirms a problem. I don't mix up lines in the French! LOL!

And those lines were on addition to, not instead of, the French!

Blech! 🤮The French. Come on, play an e6 sicillian

I play the sicillian kan

Caro kann and french are like two brothers. The bigger brother caro kann is more calm,composed and mature while the smaller brother likes to beat others badly and also gets beaten badly sometimes in the fight.