Is Caro-Kann still worth your time?

whenever you dabble into something new it is impossible not to get hit by an avalanche of pretty absurd myths let's take as an example if you go to the gym you've probably heard stuff like drinking lemonade every morning will give you a six-pack within a couple of weeks or let's say you drop some food on the floor we all like to believe there is some kind of five seconds rule that the bacteria does not have enough time to react or whatever silly example you could think of there are very similar misconceptions to chess one that I hear pretty often is Karo Khan is a pretty passive opening for my style so in today's video I'm gonna be walking you through my thinking process as an international Master the banking the biggest five karokan myths so let's get started all right everybody getting another game with the black pieces gonna be going for the Karo Khan and opponent plays Knight F3 which is not a very common move order for this rating range expecting him to go for exchange oh never mind back into the two nights standard territory where I recommend you go for the Target hour transposition and chances are very little of your opponents are gonna go quinito I mean quinito it just looks like opponent just had a stroke when they play 22 it's a very weird move so taking on F6 you just um way more natural than what I would be expecting you to face uh below 2000 and it's already a sign that your opponent is pretty Clueless develop the bishop to D6 and while you like really need to understand the body structure right off the bat okay we got the bad pawns how do we make it up for it well it is about chain meeting the enemy King checkmating the enemy King are you nuts okay let's see okay I can also start by telling you what not to do don't break with C5 because opponent has this like four against three so that's technically their stronger side and don't attack your opponent on his stronger side that is not really making that much sense even you can figure this out and yeah also don't exchange pieces because you lose all the end games and voila you already were pretty decent understanding of how this character goes now about the pieces Bishop goes to G4 Bishop to D6 on H3 we always slide it back and uh Knight goes to D7 for karukan beginners stop playing C5 trying to go Knight to C6 you have to like really get comfortable playing this Knight on D7 with the pawn or C6 H3 remember I told you to slide it back G40 because move over extending just pretty much the calculation for opponent getting Rook on the open file and next import the manual to remember the name goes on to f8 it's just you know while driving like a pretty fast car right now okay it's pretty risky with these spawns but you play Knight f8 is just like you get your seat belt on and then we are preparing a very nasty maneuver okay like important to play Bishop C7 and then Queen E6 why most people would play Queen system but you have to compare it just imagine we get the queen to D6 this is just gonna be so scary for my opponent I mean just look at it Queen D6 already targeting Pawn threading Bishop F3 to maze this is just like an unbelievably scary sniper in the bush as well if you play Queen to C7 I mean it's not really creating that much pressure it's just like you're trying to shoot them with a banana and it's not even a big banana so Play Bishop C7 way strong another question is because of his last they'll be a smooth I can't actually start by taking with the bishop and then the 26 threatening to infiltrate and on G3 just take the pawn how is that going he has Rook B1 so winning back the pawn on B7 I'm not satisfied go to the queen D6 you'd better play C5 but that's going to give us uh D5 Square so at the end of the day I'm gonna be a happy man I'm a simple guy get a D5 Square in the Target cover we're doing well oh G4 I'm like really eyeballing rookie 3 and then trying to infiltrate so I feel like I just gotta play it you know it's sometimes the hen does things that not really responsible for so I'm gonna be playing rookie 3 here and oh he just takes that meaning we're trading you can do this also yeah I'm gonna be making the most Alpha move of all time not sure it's if it's like even a good move but I'm gonna play it saying okay take my go ahead be my guest I'm gonna be a very nice Romanian host in Casey takes the Rook let's see I'm gonna check him once the king there collecting the pawn that's how we start Kingdom after I have at least Perpetual or I think I was there good I can still check him but I think the killer move is rookie for this is usually what most people tend to forget about so we get to bring more pieces into the attack and has no way of stopping rookie G4 because well the Knight is kind of tied down to defend H2 so the Knight needs to cover that square and we have ideas to infiltrate so you're not stopping that one trust me we need to play for checkmate you go in game it's the slow painful death you don't want that but for the attack set up the sniper sacrifice whenever you can basically and even have to calculate and it's gonna be okay I'm gonna check him first back I feel like Rook G4 is one of the multiple ways to win this boom and what this move basically does I'm just threatening to take the rook and that's gonna be made now I have a multitude of double checks or yeah just do that because he's actually not defending against it check only move block with the bishop and that is going to be allowing mate so I didn't really calculate all like the possibilities after rookie 3 but it really feels like such a tempting sacrifice uh yeah with that being said I think you can move on 30. following game quick announcement 19 of June while launching the Karo Khan course all my courses will be on a sale and for 20 bucks only you get access to hundreds of hours of my work that is absolutely no risk because you have money back guarantee within the first 30 days links in the description now let's get back into the video all right everybody facing another 2000 rated opponent let's see if the karokan is still holding up it starts with Knight F3 this is usually a sign that he either plays D3 or ed5 from my experience but let's see could be the two nights okay never mind back into the exchange okay let's see plays D4 now I recommend with the we do Knight C6 and the only kind of reasonable line for him is to follow it up with 95. 95 is interesting game okay Bishop D3 this just means he's completely clueless even 2000 related player yeah like guys like this 2000 narrated players are stronger than uh 99 uh percent of your opponents and they still don't really have a repertoire against the karukan which is pretty absurd and here E6 Knight F6 are playable very simple moves but even nicer Queen C7 stopping him from getting the desire the London system with Bishop to F4 so Quincy stuff a nice little touch there uh gonna set up a little trap that they need to win the pawn okay he saw now we go back Knight A3 trying to go Knight B5 just play A6 he spent like two moves for one thread that's easily defendable and here you have two ways of playing it Knight F6 is the standard way could also be interesting to play Knight E7 and then you know that could perhaps let you play F6 E5 I'm just gonna go Knight F6 It's usually the square that we choose for the night so let's stick with it okay see foreign isolated Pawn that's like you know the initial Instinct should we look for anything else I mean I don't think so yeah actually I think for this game I'm gonna try something interesting I'm not gonna take because I feel like his position becomes easy to play so I'm gonna do this maneuver and I'll try to play for G5 yeah I'm giving him this kind of push and then uh I think we're trying out this Madness with G5 this play is very slow I could also long Castle but I can delay castling now I want a G4 not sure if G4 is correct but uh it certainly is when he loses the Knight and yeah I guess that's how you get a winning position or do you tries to make it tricky it's like really shady though like point is if I take think what a queen he's got like Rook F6 but then I have Queen history King G1 Queen E3 which that has to be good for us come on I don't believe this like Rook F6 yes but okay don't take the bishop take this sweet check and uh this is the efficient way you take everything with tempo we can do that you could also do Bishop G6 if I wanna like read out this could also the queen E3 like 94 he has easy Queen trade which is still like completely winning for me so I guess we don't mind oh Bishop G4 I feel like that so opening up too many lines for my attack and we get a pretty nice little mating net going yeah 2000 rated player just uh yeah they're dropping like flies if you just play pretty solid in the opening I feel like at this point he's just gonna reach quit you may not even make any more moves oh never mind he just resigned okay I made one blunder what are you mad in the head chance.com what is this what is the blunder it's got like a 93 where is the blunder I don't get it G5 was the blunder dude relax after G5 we're still like slightly better turns out taking an E5 was a bit more like precise I guess at the end of the day but I like my G5 so okay key ideas uh to remember Queen C7 nice move in case he tries Knight E3 go A6 and then just develop so yeah Knight E3 played the do A6 97 also reasonable here but uh yeah the rule of thumb Knight F6 is good enough and uh with that being said I think we can move on to the following game foreign everybody getting a black game gonna be sticking with our beloved opening playing the Karo Khan and let's see what opponent has in mind they have a big choice between usually E5 Knight C3 or takes but how interesting this guy plays the so-called fantasy variation where you can definitely play a lot of openings but if you're not playing E5 you're definitely missing out and the point of this uh E5 is that uh well we wanna take advantage of this diagonal this is why we have sacrificed the pawn in the first place in case you would have gotten uh ed5 that is Queen H4 and uh quintix on D4 good move against the typical beginner mistake like C3 we take then Queen H4 once again winning the pawn because of the check is pretty damn strong so just gonna play Bishop C5 and against this he has only one good move which not many people are aware of in this rating range which is Knight C3 anything else instead of Knight C3 is just rubbish in this position and he plays ed5 now is this a question are we gonna get the seven moves Checkmate against like an 1800 Blitz player let's find out Queen to B6 targeting the Knight how is he planning to deal with us he has two moves for the night else he's just losing the piece and Nightwish 3 is looking pretty scary because if Bishop takes but that is kind of a decent move but now he plays quinito instead so opening kind of felt an engine 93 it is a very typical beginner mistake where even in like 800 rated games in Rapid trust me I've seen it in my students games they just allow this sound checkmate with the queen uh on E3 within seven moves it's it's actually pretty absurd my opponent plays quinito which is basically just uh giving up on the Knight completely and uh just like that in six moves uh we managed to yeah win a piece and uh well we should be having a completely winning position unless I mess things up but uh this should not really be a problem I mean it feels like he's trying to trap my queen but uh I don't think my queen wants to wants to be trapped I mean I wish it worked like that sometimes so yeah ready to take my queen is getting some you know fresh air after this check I just gotta be a little bit careful not to allow currently like at this point I know we've got him he's in the back just need to be like a little bit careful not to yeah allow any weirdness so this okay he takes now typical beginner mistake would be okay Free Pawn well that's maybe a good move but you gotta be careful so maybe we can even like delay taking this phone and try to use it as a shield for our King but honestly I think it's better just to re-centralize the queen shut down this pressure develop eventually take the opponent uh we should be Gucci let's go Knight F6 pick up the pawn maybe on the next move yeah take it take it until you make it 97 next maybe cast along he can drive f for hitting my queen but it's not really a problem I guess because of Queen F5 keeping everything nicely defended G4 once again just Queen takes on G4 Bishop D4 I mean I can easily castle at least but also played like Knight b87 it's not like uh there's much going on he's like down a rook and I'm kind of like slightly ahead in development which is pretty funny just gonna take the Free Pawn he has one fret so always watch out for your opponents uh for that in case uh there are any don't get too paranoid with it in case you are in like lower rated games chances are uh you know your opponents may have no idea of what they're doing but still you want to get into the habit of uh looking for potential ideas Queens more than happy up material because the end game is but you're gonna be a win okay Queen to D2 only semi-practical chance in more practical would be to resign at this point but I know you guys uh don't like uh such comments during the video so I'll stop making them okay I'm watching I'm watching your comments for those of you that are telling me stuff like uh stop telling beginners to play karokan it's a free win it's not really a free win I play the karokan I lose 12 games in the row that's not a good opening I see it too and I'm like really I'm sorry but probably if you lost 12 games with the Karo Khan It's not really much I can do to help at this point so uh yeah anyways let's stick to the educational part of this 94 just exchanging pieces definitely happy to trade more as we get closer to our goal of making it into the end game and uh The Rock will start to like really tell more uh once less pieces are on the board it's like basically uh in in like a sport let's just imagine you went out playing soccer and you're having like a counter attack with three again still yeah that is basically just uh you know should be you know considered a winning situation so it's the same it's it's harder to like score in let's say five against uh four uh with more people on the field because there is like less space than three against two that's kind of the idea I mean even better two against one so you get it Knight to F6 just preparing them bring my my last piece into the game just making sure these two guys are like defending each other and uh let's see I'd imagine 27 the way I know my opponent and then we have Bishop takes on a to a check winning his Queen never mind that is absolutely nonsense he did none of that I'm not like a magician so you may be perhaps a simulating uh romanian's way that not the case yet I wish I was though I'm just gonna sack because uh well rookie 3 that is made and uh we kind of opened things up a little I'm gonna have uh two extra pieces so I'd like to keep the initiative going and I'm gonna be terrorizing my opponent with a queen try just look I'm like so much ahead I could just try to check my team I don't care about Checkmate okay I want a mate but the main goal is I'm just sacrificing here I want to do the best of my ability to trade queens and make sure we give him uh just no hopes of like anything important into the uh end games at least that's what they say in the books so we'll try to follow that uh Knight to D5 area to maybe infiltrate okay let's start now now it's literally time to collect okay this is uh basically we are collecting the safety tasks I mean the tax not the task so just remembering to the G5 oh man I hate it that my English is so awful at times it really feels uh there is no hope for me with that but uh we'll try to convert this guy who's like really he really feels like he's got a chance okay time to do some pre-moving time to do some pre-moving against our boy nine seconds should be relatively easy you're not going anywhere boy just uh chill out why is he like so uh he wants to win this game so badly he played so bad and still wants to win this is not how it works you boy not how it works around here let's see not like stall now for like 40 seconds this guy's like literally trying his hardest I feel like bad for beating on him I mean he's gonna he's rating uh back anyways because it's an authorized speedrunner count but it's like pretty funny he just disconnected Rage Quit he lost again such a weak player like me that uh he couldn't really handle it I mean it is really honestly the most normal reaction that you can have but uh with that being said I think we can move on to the following game all right everybody getting another game this time facing somebody rated two thousand so let's see if the karokan is still holding up against this kind of high rated players so Knight to C3 this is usually an indicator that he may be playing the two knights but he could also just play D4 but yeah from my experience uh it is the two nights indeed and uh are we gonna see the main line because I recommend you take idea being to try and get back into our bill of Tata cover but upon I can play Queenie too so yeah there we have it the main line quinito I recommend you you start by taking Knight D6 could be interesting sideline there but it's more like complicated in my course uh I recommend you take and then the point is to stick with the following very tricky move this is like the main thing you wanna remember because we play Bishop to E6 and that is a prophylactic move against a number of things okay don't get me wrong you could play Queen D5 Queen A5 Bishop F5 I guess it's given by uh Gotham chess and he scores that's like reasonable as well it's just Queen A5 Queen F4 is leading to like strange variations that are hard to remember so I like Bishop E6 better because D4 is not a good move and you see my opponent instantly played it from my experience in this position you will face both D4 and Bishop to C4 uh yeah needless to say they are just harmless Bishop C4 you can trade and get a game uh you can also Play Bishop to D5 okay on D4 here we get to see that the move Bishop E6 really starts to shine why because we have a very concrete idea when as we play Bishop D5 targeting these two pieces and then the point is uh we take on F3 producing a massive concession by white because if he takes to the queen Pawn on D4 remains hanging and if he takes with a pawn well that is gonna leave him with a very ugly Pawn structure like almost getting my stiff structure reasonable move um well we're gonna take and uh we'll uh try to make the argument that uh White should not have enough compensation and I like to start 97 flattering 95 because once we get our hands on this light Squad Bishop I think uh White's attack is over before it even started so that is pretty nice obviously very happy to trade Queens if opponent allows it but uh yeah let's just go in G3 gonna take that immediately not giving him the chance though save the bishop and here there are basically two ideas we can either try to Castle short or just long uh Castle right away if you like long Castle is uh really viable here I'm just gonna keep it simple though I feel like the majority of you would go short it's kind of thematic though for the line to go long I don't know I'm just gonna start with E6 and then we'll decide expecting Bishop E3 type of move just sacrificing the pawn but developing with Tempo be honest clearly a sign that he wants to lose we'll develop with Tempo G7 is covered by the queen and uh and now we just castled Bishop E3 not interested in the pawn because uh he had the Rook D1 ideas Place B3 setting up uh Bishop to B2 I guess I'm gonna play Queen to D5 just to be in time to cancel that Bishop Bishop E5 and yeah I do have uh how many pawns oh okay only one extra Pawn but he's got a big weakness gonna trade Bishops Rook on the open files double up onto that point just pretty simple and straightforward stuff right now got the isolated Pawn on D3 the how I like to call it upside down turtle and uh okay how do we increase the pressure normally E5 V4 but I kind of got the a bit the wrong setup because I would love to have the queen uh behind the Rooks so I'm gonna do something like this prepping Queen C7 and then I do Rook D5 Queen back PM still offering Queen trade just to be annoying if he takes I mean I'm more than happy Queen C7 once again blackmailing him with the trade and now Rook D4 we get to rearrange our pieces with tempo whole point being to get my queen behind and then I want to do E5 E4 that's how you get the decisive push yeah E4 not much you can do I guess Suzuki one but then Rook D3 could simplify things let's see Queen they're still E4 happy with the trade and he still has uh he's completely pinned so here you get to see why it's so effective to have heavy pieces against the iqb because it really gets you in a position where he has uh no way to I'm gonna play dito if he allows it by the way I'm gonna get into a position where uh he doesn't have a way to deal with that Palm push and now this is just a poison Pawn because all the end games are uh that uh lost for my opponent because he's uh down upon in the king opponent game so I have an easy I have an easy push no not even yeah I don't even have to defend that I get a pawn to C3 and that is usually gonna be a queen do you hear the Bell because the carpet for the pawn now CTC one no way for inter defend and uh yeah I'm actually pretty happy because this turned out to be uh I would say quite instructive I guess at the end of the day it's up to you guys to let me know in the comments but uh yeah okay uh get rid of that Rook you're just gonna get them with a with a with a lonely King just give them no no pieces no hope and then you get out of the ladder mate so uh yeah remember when they go Queenie two main line in the two knights take and play Bishop to E6 D40 is not a good move because of Bishop D5 take on F3 and uh yeah against Bishop C4 you could trade you could do anything Bishop D5 just as good so with that being said I think we can move on to the following game alright everybody getting another game on the black pieces gonna be sticking with our beloved opening and uh all right opponent playing F4 expecting this move so much within this rating range but I guess it is super instructive for those of you that are below uh 1500 this is ultra common and uh it is really resembling the advanced variation so positions like this are very similar to this ones and what is actually quite important to remember whenever you are facing this you don't want to be rushing with uh what most of the low rated players tend to do without really thinking too much they just get the bishop out okay that is not really a bad move in itself but I really want you to genuinely treat it as it was the advance so if you are new to the channel against the advance I recommend C5 variation so point is just by C5 now and the idea is we go Knight C6 and then instead of developing the bishop to F5 we can even get it on a more like aggressive Square to G4 putting pressure on the Knight and usually fighting for the default square and then okay that Knight doesn't have the natural Square because of the pawn so typical idea we play E6 and the Knight is preparing to go to F5 okay side note in these positions I guess you could also use the H6 Square just because uh with the phonon F4 the bishop can no longer take I mean you know that Bishops don't jump over pawns so uh we just play Knight E7 that would be a cool uh cool idea though uh preparing Knight F5 and all right it seems like he's really either preparing D4 I think he cannot do D4 because he doesn't have enough control over that square but he'll just try to develop usually like Knight a3cito is coming maneuver to get developed 92 doesn't work because it allows 93 so he plays 21. okay this is interesting position have easy move just Bishop E7 probably are going to stick with it also H5 is very common and useful in this structure I want to start H5 just to show you the idea point is he's gonna play H3 sooner or later I want to take and then fix the structure with H4 fix that uh weak Square on G3 and anyways H3 is useful because I mean H5 is useful because whenever we take it's gonna have G for idea so this is very nice kind of slowing him down so there we see Knight E3 which I mentioned Bishop B7 uh could also play H for myself kind of kind of bait him into playing it because otherwise I might uh you know go all the way with a pawn I don't think that's a problem we just take I guess we're gonna keep pushing here I'm expecting him to advance to just stop me and okay here we have interesting uh interesting idea you know I always say to take on F3 against the advance so this is resembling the advance taking is definitely solid good move I'm just wondering would it be better to keep Bishop here because you know opponent feels like uh his position is a little bit cramped he's lacking space his pieces are kind of like gasping for air therefore keeping pieces on the board will make uh his situation a little bit uh more difficult to play so I think I'm Gonna Keep here just for that reason alone and I have ideas to perhaps infiltrate uh with a knight and just be very annoying okay Knight B5 whenever they see pieces like this this is very common for games that are below 1500 uh whatever I have like a coaching session with anybody I see like a night jumps on B5 people just uh are okay throw in like a knight on B5 it's basically like uh you know I pay to have a parking spot and just some render comes and Parks his car there and you're like okay no big deal I'll just park next to it now you just immediately question the guy what are you doing with that night in my uh parking area you gotta go back yeah you better do that or else you may get in trouble so get rid of the night and then put the B5 just expanding I don't want to do B5 I feel like the cool kids play B5 it's getting a lot of space um and just gradually improving my position not really looking for the deadly blow yet but just making small improving moves and hopefully my opinion will blender else you know I don't know how I would be making a career if my opponents were not blundering that would be a pretty rough time so just gonna do queen C7 I guess preparing long castle and maybe breaking with F6 it's pretty funny that even King D7 maybe maybe interesting move since uh well he doesn't have a way to open up the position and on B4 I don't think we're very interested to open up the C file it could be a move just uh maybe considering to get the check on the diagonal but um yeah not super sure about that if I play C4 on the other hand he's gonna try to block the issue it probably take just a weekend D4 and then I'm thinking about this F6 break I could have started with check but I think uh takes and then take with the Jeep on opening up file for The Rook I think King could be well placed on D7 defending the Knight making room for the other Rook I'm not afraid of uh him taking my Pawn on H4 I don't even think that works but uh yeah okay Rook C1 so first we unpin yeah he cannot block with a queen because that's losing B for the pawn so we trade and then win end game is nice and King H2 just King D7 defending preparing to bring the other Rook yeah I think it's very safe there it's a bit of a complicated position I know but if he takes that's gonna make uh it's so much easier else we might just go Bishop F3 Fe oh he plays D4 isn't that like completely hanging like that is completely hanging I feel like opponent is trying to sell something that I'm not interested to buy is gonna take and then gonna be taking with the C9 because the F5 Knight is looks to be pretty juicy gonna take this way idea to perhaps take and yeah now I guess we're just uh end game mode turned on because we got the extra upon it's no longer about uh trying to get a Checkmate oh Knight C2 give someone the bishop kind of want the bishop the Knight is not doing much click on the open file still take with a pawn you did a good job not taking because I would have really gotten a devastating attack okay 93 maybe 94 F5 trying to block the position so there are no tricks yeah not a lot of time on the clock so only 30 seconds position is a bit uh complicated but yeah we'll do my best though at least not hang all of my pieces that may happen so I guess Knight back can't really Fork yet wait maybe I can oh no I blundered he's got ugly too well he see it no he didn't get Bishop D4 I think that was working for him uh I mean too bad he missed it right uh okay how do I get my pieces coordinated I guess I don't okay six try to win this Pawn what can I do I'm a simple man I just want that E6 Pawn which is utterly annoying V3 Hit The Rook referring to maybe bring my queen over 25 or G6 okay come on go Bishop C3 take on G7 you know you want that pawn that allows D2 as well but never mind he didn't do that Rook G6 but I play 25. and just ignore me guys my moves are uh just like my commentary struggling to make sense Bishop C3 right I don't know what he wants with that but I guess I'll just win the E6 Pawn okay he wants Rook D3 I've got Queen E4 position is completely winning but will I be in time I guess Rook d8 next would be reasonable yes the opponent also going down on time that is good news Bishop G7 I've got Bishop C7 yeah should be in the bag now he's really slow and uh I have uh end game available okay clearly this guy is uh falling asleep but I think it was uh I think it was really well played game uh until like King D7 and all that main thing to remember from this game do not play Bishop F5 as soon as that's available typical uh you know inaccuracy for low rated games and remember this uh h5h4 idea it is very useful for this type of positions trying to bait uh take and then your knight has uh like a rent-free apartment on G3 it's like a very nice little cozy place so uh yeah with that being said I think we can move on to the following game

Channel: IM Alex Banzea

Views: 67,001

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Id: WBPRkviv8bc

Length: 37min 40sec (2260 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023