What do you think of the Caro-Kann?

Sort:
Avatar of Dark_Falcon

I havent mentioned the opening is bad or unsound, i really hate to play against this positional stuff.

Iam a tactical player, a woodpusher, most times i can only win if my attack is successful and i often find myself having problems in strategic play.

So, it was no offense against the caro-kann...

Avatar of Mandy711

Caro-kann is for good endgame players. If endgame is not your cup of tea... forget it.

Avatar of ItsEoin

Chess is as boring as you make it. People who say an opening is boring should stop following prescribed, += GM evaluations and start thinking for themselves a bit more. Anything can be sharp. Go a bit crazy! ;)

Avatar of JMB2010

I always like playing against it for some reason, but jeez is it a tough nut to crack!

Avatar of Radical_Drift

As it turns out, world champion and famous aggressive player Viswanathan Anand has played a "few" Caro-Kanns. I've gone through every game :)

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=12088&playercomp=black&opening=B10-B19&title=Viswanathan%20Anand%20playing%20the%20Caro-Kann%20as%20Black

Avatar of ponz111

The Caro-Kaan is a good solid opening which usually starts out as a defense but gives good middle game and endgame chances.

Genghis Khan, on the other hand was very aggresive. This great Mongo Emperor believe in quick attack with his massive hordes.

Caro-Kann is a great opening for those who know it well.

Avatar of Cidragon

i have an awesome win ratio with the caro-khan (my personal database say 76% including others servers and tournaments games) the most important reason i think is that 90% of the people under 2000 want finish a game with mate so in the caro this almost never happen ( in the panov this can happen) they can't with the pressure and start playing inaccurate moves.

Avatar of Phelon

Its basically a direct refutation to 1.e4. It is customary for white to resign immediately after 1... c6 so as not to drag out an obvious defeat. Also quite full of fun tactics, and features fully developed active piece play and a sound pawn structure unlike a lot of black openings against 1.e4.



Avatar of Radical_Drift
Phelon wrote:

Its basically a direct refutation to 1.e4. It is customary for white to resign immediately after 1... c6 so as not to drag out an obvious defeat. Also quite full of fun tactics, and features fully developed active piece play and a sound pawn structure unlike a lot of black openings against 1.e4.

 



Haha, a direct refutation to 1.e4 :) Alert Carlsen quickly!

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1705229

Avatar of DrFrank124c

The Caro is a  solid opening and I have been playing it for a while with very good results.  

Avatar of Lou-for-you

Strange. I never played a boring game with kc. It is full of traps so as black you need to beware. The black pawns seem all crazy for attack on the queen side or the king side. Never boring if you go for a win as black. How can a game be boring because of c6 d5?

Avatar of BrillatSavarin

These arguments are so silly. Chessman1504 takes an obviously tongue and cheek post and uses it as his strawman (inflating an argument so you can knock it down). With the example of Carlsen beating it. As Carlsen is the highest rated player in the world, he demolishes pretty much anything that comes his way as white, so the same could be said for the sicilian, french and e5. No black opening is immune to the occasional knock down. That's the nature of the game as white generally wins 52-54% of all chess games, because with the first move comes the initiative.

That has no bearing on the fact that the Caro is one of the great four reponses to 1. e4. If you don't like the Caro, or more likely if you don't like playing against the Caro, fine. If you think it's boring, fine. But don't post single games out of 100,000 games and say, hey look a refutation. That's nonsense.

Avatar of AngeloPardi
Dark_Falcon wrote:

probably one of the most boring openings ever...fits perfectly to people who get excited with the QGD exchange variation...

Kasparov played the QGD exchange variation with o-o-o and opposite castle. 
Hardly "boring" 

Avatar of Radical_Drift
BrillatSavarin wrote:

These arguments are so silly. Chessman1504 takes an obviously tongue and cheek post and uses it as his strawman (inflating an argument so you can knock it down). With the example of Carlsen beating it. As Carlsen is the highest rated player in the world, he demolishes pretty much anything that comes his way as white, so the same could be said for the sicilian, french and e5. No black opening is immune to the occasional knock down. That's the nature of the game as white generally wins 52-54% of all chess games, because with the first move comes the initiative.

That has no bearing on the fact that the Caro is one of the great four reponses to 1. e4. If you don't like the Caro, or more likely if you don't like playing against the Caro, fine. If you think it's boring, fine. But don't post single games out of 100,000 games and say, hey look a refutation. That's nonsense.

Okay, I've decided to edit this post, because I was being mean over a simple misunderstanding. BrillatSavarin, I did not say that the Caro-Kann was refuted because Carlsen beat it in Tata Steel 2013. In my post, I said "Haha, a direct refutation to 1.e4," because the person above me said that the Caro-Kann was a direct refutation, and I knew he was just joking. All that I was doing was making another joke back, implying that if the Caro-Kann was a direct refutation to 1.e4, then we should alert Carlsen, because he plays 1.e4 often and beat Erwin L'Ami in Tata Steel 2013. Now do you understand? I never said the Caro-Kann was refuted. In fact, if you were to see some of the games I post, you'll find that the Caro-Kann is my favorite response to 1.e4. In the annotations, I'll say something like, "Caro-Kann, typical of me" after 1.e4 c6. Heck, the only reason I made this forum was because it is my favorite response to 1.e4, and I wanted a thread kind of like the Sicilian thread. I hope there is no more misunderstanding, and if you find something to argue about, it is not my problem. Good day.

Avatar of Radical_Drift
chessman1504 wrote:
Phelon wrote:

Its basically a direct refutation to 1.e4. It is customary for white to resign immediately after 1... c6 so as not to drag out an obvious defeat. Also quite full of fun tactics, and features fully developed active piece play and a sound pawn structure unlike a lot of black openings against 1.e4.

 



Haha, a direct refutation to 1.e4 :) Alert Carlsen quickly!

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1705229

Avatar of Radical_Drift

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/attack-and-defense-in-the-caro-kann

Avatar of Radical_Drift

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/i-need-help-analyzing-this-game

Avatar of Radical_Drift

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/the-most-awkward-defense-ever

Avatar of Radical_Drift

The intent of these posts was to show that I play the Caro-Kann often and that I even say something like "Caro-Kann, my typical choice against 1.e4."

Avatar of Radical_Drift
chessman1504 wrote:
BrillatSavarin wrote:

These arguments are so silly. Chessman1504 takes an obviously tongue and cheek post and uses it as his strawman (inflating an argument so you can knock it down). With the example of Carlsen beating it. As Carlsen is the highest rated player in the world, he demolishes pretty much anything that comes his way as white, so the same could be said for the sicilian, french and e5. No black opening is immune to the occasional knock down. That's the nature of the game as white generally wins 52-54% of all chess games, because with the first move comes the initiative.

That has no bearing on the fact that the Caro is one of the great four reponses to 1. e4. If you don't like the Caro, or more likely if you don't like playing against the Caro, fine. If you think it's boring, fine. But don't post single games out of 100,000 games and say, hey look a refutation. That's nonsense.

Okay, I've decided to edit this post, because I was being mean over a simple misunderstanding. BrillatSavarin, I did not say that the Caro-Kann was refuted because Carlsen beat it in Tata Steel 2013. In my post, I said "Haha, a direct refutation to 1.e4," because the person above me said that the Caro-Kann was a direct refutation, and I knew he was just joking. All that I was doing was making another joke back, implying that if the Caro-Kann was a direct refutation to 1.e4, then we should alert Carlsen, because he plays 1.e4 often and beat Erwin L'Ami in Tata Steel 2013. Now do you understand? I never said the Caro-Kann was refuted. In fact, if you were to see some of the games I post, you'll find that the Caro-Kann is my favorite response to 1.e4. In the annotations, I'll say something like, "Caro-Kann, typical of me" after 1.e4 c6. Heck, the only reason I made this forum was because it is my favorite response to 1.e4, and I wanted a thread kind of like the Sicilian thread. I hope there is no more misunderstanding, and if you find something to argue about, it is not my problem. Good day.