I strongly advocate the Caro-Kann

Dear chess friends,

I would like to point to the last three blog posts on my website, where I recommend to play the Caro-Kann.

http://matthias-wahls.com/

Please, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Best regards,

Matthias

A very interesting read, especially the last one.

Thank you Matthias, I have just taken up the Caro-Kann so this is great stuff.

You are betting on the right horse, Jose. After the elite found out that there is nothing for them in the main lines, they are now desperately combing the side lines. But to no avail.

I have found the Caro-Kann to be highly underrated. 

Many players assume it is a dull, stodgy, boring opening.

However, I have had some amazing attacking, tactical games from the black side of the Caro-Kann. 

True; this is one of my favorite brilliant attacking Caro Kann games: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1103209

The advance variation is in my view the hardest nut to crack for black in the Caro-Kann. Peter Svidlers games really show how deadly he and this variation is vs the Caro. Thanks GM Mattias Wahls for a very interesting site and resource.

The advance is not too hard at all. 

One of the easiest is as follows - 

The other way is more traditional and you look to exchange queens for a nice endgame.

@Morphys-Revenge

The second part of your post is rather simplistic, as White can do much better than playing 4.Bd3. Generally, he will rather try to harrass the exposed light-squared bishop instead of swapping it off.

That said, I very much agree with the first part of your statement. If you look at the statistics in ChessBase's Online Datebase you will find 65505 games after 3..Bf5, while there are only 11205 games after 3..c5. This indicates, that there is much less work to do when opting for 3..c5. As both moves are of the same quality, I am teaching my students 3..c5, adhering to the principle of efficiency (effect in relation to input).

I think he may have been referring to the Shirov variation which is the sharpest option for white.

caro kann is so good

1e4 is dead! long live the queens pawn opening!

Long live 1. d4, yes, because the games with 1. d4 take about a century, so that's a pretty long life.

Meh, French is better.

*yawn* Oh sorry. Were we talking about Queen Pawn Openings?

queen pawn openings can be very exciting... not that i play them as white

I'll skip the opening of the Queen Pawn and the early middlegame.

The late middlegame is just as exciting as king pawn openings.