Stupid Caro Kann!

I’m surprised by how many players still play that stupid Caro Kann. You don’t learn chess that way. Why choose to be passive voluntarily? It’s an embarrassment. The only real threat to White is the Sicilian!

For sure! Caro Kann is so boring!

A tool cant be stupid

If you're ever wondering why the Caro-Kann is popular, look no further than GothamChess. His fanbase is practically a cult at this point. They blindly follow his advice like it's the gospel...and he just so happens to be a Caro-Kann stan.

Any time I play against someone who ends up losing in a hurry because they play way too quickly, it's almost always a Caro-Kann player. And since Levy Rozman is pretty much the chess equivalent of brainrot — eroding attention spans with his overly-enthusiastic commentary and constantly making fun of people instead of trying to help them get better, because he cares more about getting views than making meaningful content — that actually makes a whole lot of sense.

Is the Caro-Kann defense bad? Not hardly. But has it been ruined? Yes, by Levy.

I’m a big fan of the Caro-kann. People who play it “passively” are welcome to do so - positional chess is possible and it’s solid - but I like to use it to springboard some slightly more ambitious and imbalanced positions. But the pawn structures aren’t too challenging, and some of the plans simple but effective. It’s a key component to my rating 🤷‍♂️

In the Caro-Kahn playing as white against or black with it, you've won 1114 games, lost 1156.

Around 330 odd points lost in this opening over time.

Stupid openings?

No such thing, but you can find a lot of stupid players- even in your bedroom.

Well Ngl, i also play Caro Kaan because of Levy, and tbh, i have won a lot of games with it, Its an opening for positional players and not for attacking players. Yea sure it's a bit boring and I wouldn't call it stupid. Its just depends if you are positional or attacking

You Just Made Levy Angry

Two things:

1) You can’t critique and opening until you can spell it. It’s “Caro-Kann”

2) Your metric conveniently leaves out draws. With black, we should be happy to win or hold draws against similarly-rated opponents. I loaded up my “chessmonitor” to get the sample size from my chesscom and my less-used lichess for most accurate results, and as you can see below I have a modest success rate of not losing more than half of the time. Taken over the thousands of games, this is a good result for an opening. Please note as well, that due to my chesscom setup for pairings is deliberately weighted for higher opponents, my win rates in all openings are therefore lower than they would be comparatively if I had set it up to have balanced pairings (the effect is the same: you either win more games but get less rating points for wins; or win less games but on average gain more ratings from wins. I prefer to do the latter).

And, lo and behold, my most recent game featuring the Caro-kann was a convincing win over an opponent higher rated than most amateur chess players hope to be aspirationally:

So tell me again why the Caro-Kann isn’t a good opening?

How many times do I need to listen to (ahem) people criticize something of which they have no understanding? Do you negative neds even READ the prior threads? NO ... you just want to complain. If you don't like the Caro-Kann, DON'T PLAY IT. If a Black opponent responds with CK and you are so silly, then RESIGN and shut the F up.

ADDED: I wonder if we've ever seen a Grand Master cry at a tournament because his OP played something they didn't like? Chess is a COMPETITION. If I would win because I BORE MY OP to death, I'll TAKE IT GLADLY.

Gotham chess: don't say that about my opening!

Let the Caro-Kann hate flow through you? AGREED. If my OP tilts because of an opening (ANY opening), that makes me happy - maybe they'll quit the game in a huff.

Whether I win or lose more is MY CHOICE as is HOW I choose to play. Those who don't like anything I play can take a long walk on a short peer.

It's unfortunate that the people who need to hear this will ignore it. I, for one, don't care one bit what opening my opponent plays, as long as they...well, play. All of these people getting mad about what openings their opponents play are probably only doing it because they don't know how to effectively deal with said openings, not because they're "boring" or "passive."

Speaking of "boring" openings, by the way, I know from experience that even they can lead to crazy games if the players decide they want to go down that road. For example, the Fantasy Variation of the Caro-Kann is incredibly daring, with White usually trying to mount a strong attack in return for their somewhat weak king. I've played it a few times myself and my record with it isn't the best, but it's almost always led to quite the game.

It's funny but I'm studying the Scandinavian Defense (I've used Caro-Kann mostly in the past). Several times, the Scandinavian transitioned into the CK in my tests (no, I'm not joking). I anticipate, when I really dig into many openings and defensive responses, many of them *kris cross applesauce.

* Okay, yeah ... I just wanted an excuse to say kris-cross applesauce because it always makes me laugh and normally it is reserved for two Bishops' line of sight crossing on diagonals. But I can SAY it ... just like I can PLAY anything I want. ;-)

Tbh, I do think caro kaan is a bit overrated because of Gothamchess, that opening isn't even that good but a lot of people play it because levy plays it. I think that no opening is stupid or bad at the elite level and if you study that opening thoroughly for your high level tournament, then there's no problem in playing that opening. The thing is, a lot of people play Caro Kaan at intermediate or newbie level, that's wh

You initially said in regards to the Caro-Kann that "It’s a key component to my rating"

No it's not. You have a 45% win rate in all games involving this opening. Draws were not mentioned because they're generally 0pts, your lichess account is irrelevant to the above quote and so is telling us you're paired against higher rated opponents which we'd have to take your word for anyway. With that win rate at 45% overall, even being compared with opponents slightly above your own ratings, it's still laughable to then suggest that the opening is ' a key component of your rating, you don't even know how to play with it as black, as your record is won 886, drawn 160, lost 963 = win rate 44.1%

Pack it in, no matter how you try to dress it up and flesh out with chessmonitor stats, the reality is you are no Caro-Kann connoisseur, even if you were 100 or 200 pts up on this opening, which you're not, it's still an outright lie to say it's a key component to your rating, which incidentally you keep casually mentioned on any given thread, you're proud of your rating in the easiest time control that is Rapid, we get it, we get it.

That's why some of them say that caro kaan is stupid or whatever because they don't study that opening seriously like elite players do. Levy has no problem with caro kaan because has studied it thoroughly and knows his playing style. But intermediate players don't even know which playing style suit them and starts playing caro kaan. After some games it feels boring because of passive positional play and losses and then they say caro kaan is stupid. Conclusion is that no opening is stupid. It just depends on which playing style u prefer. I prefer positional play, so i play Caro Kaan and i do win games with it. But some people who don't like positional play just starts playing caro kaan because of Levy and loses some games because it's positional and boring

IMpfren 
 
4 hrs ago 
 
1
#9
”Stupid openings?

No such thing, but you can find a lot of stupid players- even in your bedroom.”

This is the truest thing I’ve read for a very long time.