The only Caro-Kann guide you will ever need

before we dive into the more technical stuff I want you to really understand that the Karo Khan only works against E4 alright you have no idea how many people come here confused wondering whether they can play this opening against other stuff like D4 C4 you name it I'm sorry to break your dreams just like Santa Claus this does not exist and in fact the situation is pretty simple you can compare this to salt and sugar they both look very similar but when you do the taste you're gonna feel the difference or at least hopefully so we're gonna start by looking onto the exchange variation after E4 C6 D4 D5 now y goes for takes and honestly I do believe that this is the most crucial variation that you need to understand and perhaps even the simplest when it comes to memorization and the cherry on top of the cake is that with this you're pretty much gonna be killing six birds with one stone now you're probably wondering well that must be a pretty heavy Stone well I really like your perspicacity okay average one from the ELO player very nice to meet you I like your sense of humor but I'm referring to moves like let's say the bishop to C4 hillbilly attack or whatever you guys call this D5 85 Pawn takes what is this gonna be it is just gonna be an improved version for black of the exchange because the bishop is just out of the game okay you cannot play hillbilly attack and tell me that this is something different okay you cannot put lipstick on a pig and then say it's pretty so the same can be applied for uh moves like Knight to F3 D5 takes or Knight to C3 D5 Pawn takes put all of these into the same bucket after D5 D5 takes takes learn this position and you're pretty much gonna kill them all now the way you want to develop it's pretty uh intuitive Knights are supposed to go into their natural squares we want to get castle short but remember we don't want to be locking in the bishop inside the pawn chain so before you do that develop the light Square Bishop usually we prefer G4 if that's available if not uh we may stick with Bishop to F5 that works just fine as well and then you want to be playing E6 Bishop E7 get castled Rook comes into the open file black is doing really well now there's actually something even more interesting and it's the last thing that I want to mention about this variation because it may occur very often after Knight F3 we play 96 and now y goes for the PIN I want you to play Bishop to G4 let's see why castles and we play E6 if you're around 1 000 ELO there is a very common archetype of players that genuinely love to develop their Bishops like this as they are somehow about to take you down in some whatever karate fight and with that I'm referring to the move Bishop to G5 but in fact instead of getting you know anxious and uncomfortable what if I told you that has a winning move instead of going Bishop to E7 like most of the people would do you know embracing this exchange and then getting like a normal position how about we once in a while step up from mediocrity and we go for the counter attack with Bishop takes on F3 eliminating the defender so if they take our Bishop we take theirs if they enter this Carousel of voicing moves taking our Queen we take their Queen if they take our Bishop we take their Bishop I don't know why I sound like that but I can let you do the account we are just having an extra piece so not too shabby okay instead of the immediate blunder uh White could play also the move H3 which is like really the main thing that I want you to remember about the exchange variation because after I spent hundreds of hours perhaps even thousands analyzing with a computer in these type of Physicians I came to the conclusion that there are actually some patterns that if you look in the right direction you can easily get to the optimal solution so you just need to pretty much figure out what kind of variation are you facing and for each variation in this video I'm gonna be explaining one simple rule to always deal with this move when they are attacking your Bishop so when you are facing the exchange if they either have Bishop onto B5 or Knight onto C3 we like to take on Ft you may be wondering okay I like this sort of simplified thinking but I kind of wanna test the fire with my own fingers well please don't do that but if you really want to you can slide it back but then I move like G4 can really get in trouble king of Bishop back but then Knight E5 this point push can get your Bishop trap there's a lot of pressure going on onto the Knight why would you even get yourself into such an uncomfortable position Okay computer May survive but for someone that wanted to play the karokan against one D4 I wouldn't really recommend you enter this now if you are going back a little uh after H3 day tonight they're gonna be taking the queen and we have this very simple development Knight on F6 Knight whatever Bishop E7 they do this usually we like to Castle already threatening the pawn because remember we have unpinned in beginner's brain they will usually forget about this thinking that the pawn on D4 is somehow gonna be immortal but okay if they go to the one defending just go to C8 and very important you want to be using your pawns there's like two things you want to understand about the exchange make sure you have a safe King then you just have raise free pressure on the queen side because of this open file but for that we're going to be using the pawns the minority attack push this go Knight T5 Knight C4 and black is already slightly better so from the most common variation that we have just looked at we're gonna be diving right into what I believe to be by far the most annoying thing that you can ever face if unrepared and you probably already know that I'm talking about the fantasy variation wait you're gonna be getting after the moves E4 C6 D4 D5 and now white simply defends Pawn by Pawn and here we have the first Crossroads because technically speaking every single move is able to equalize more or less like de is fine fiancaro is fine Queen B6 is also okay however I recommend you play on to E5 this is a pawn sacrifice and it's actually connected with a pretty cunning idea against the most common move according to the statistics the takes on E5 I want you to really pay attention onto this diagonal that has been weakened when white play the move F3 so we're pretty much in other words exploiting them for playing the fantasy you can start with either Bishop to C5 or queen B6 and they will once again usually take when this happens I want you to play the Queen targeting the Knight now put yourself in white shoes are you gonna play Knight H3 allowing Bishop takes giving you this weird Pawn structure I don't really think so and in fact most of the people would play the move 92. where I'd like to ask you to pause the video and try to find the little winning sequence for black because you have no idea how common this thing actually really is it even happens in games that are rated around like 1800 in Rapid this is absolutely insane you have no idea black angle for the check King has only one square because black is going to be getting a very fat Checkmate now the risk of this is that you're gonna be getting too excited and made tunnel vision this idea for the whole game but before we move on to the other lines I want to bring to your attention a very important detail when you are playing E5 you are also opening up Queen's path so another very common mistake that the white players are making in this position they just go C3 okay don't ask me why they're playing this move I guess they just kind of like this weird Pawn structure you know just having every single one of the airplanes like these thinking they are defending the center but if you're a good boy or a girl you can think on e4 and after Pawn takes they are very vulnerable to this check yeah Queen to H4 hitting the king and the pawn if the king moves it's bad if they play G3 it's bad bad after Queen E4 with a ginormous Fork pick up the Rook under the next move with a winning position now does this mean that the fantasy is simply losing by force for white no that's actually not the case at all in a nutshell when white is going for the fantasy what you need to understand is that the opening objectively speaking is pretty solid but it is just very difficult to play since with F3 you're just taking a lot of the natural moves away from as I mentioned already the Knight so from my experience you're highly unlikely to deal with somebody below 1800 that actually understands how to play this especially how to deal with our very tricky gamut so moving on to another variation we're gonna be inspecting the so-called classical which starts after C6 D4 D5 and now white is playing the move Knight to C 3. simply defending their Pawn with a knight here I recommend you take very important move otherwise if you forget to do this and start with like Knight F6 then I can push the pawn this is a common beginner mistake and you simply have no good Square for the Knight instead do take and after Knight takes according to the book the best move objectively is Bishop to F5 but in the same time this can also be the worst move just because this variation is super boring to play usually you have to remember a lot of theory just to force a Perpetual else you may immediately get checkmated and against other inferior Lines by white it is just gonna be incredibly difficult to play for the win to the point where if you just start staring into your ceiling or looking onto an empty wall you will have way more fun and I'm like not even exaggerating therefore I recommend you play the move Knight F6 this is not only incredibly easy to play because after Knight takes on F6 Pawn takes on F6 you literally don't need any Theory you just need to remember every single piece belongs like for instance let's have a look that square Bishop goes to D6 we always Castle short if possible we play Bishop G4 if that's not a thing we go to F5 whatever Knight always goes to D7 Model S Rook goes on to the open file you already know you're following next 10 moves considering the fact that I don't remember what food I had yesterday I think this is a pretty underrated strategy to have but wait a second because this gets even better if you're playing this variation you're actually set against another very critical response by white because in case they're going for the two knights Knight to C3 and then Knight F3 you can still play D takes on e4 and hope for a Tata cover transposition after Knight to F6 because if they take we take it back with a pawn and they will most of the times play D4 and we're back into the normal things maybe Santa Claus does exist after all so just to give you a very brief introductory line we play Bishop to D6 and yeah if Bishop to D3 we're gonna Castle then we get the pin okay priorities first we Castle then we pin and if white plays number H3 whenever you have this double pawns I recommend you step back with the bishop take that as the rule do it all the time and you're gonna be doing very well next up you can continue with moves such as rookie 8 let's say I play some random things Knight always goes on to D7 and then it Maneuvers itself to f8 simply because the alternative Knight to B6 was really bad if you think that you're about to get 95 and then take the enemy Bishop think again because they can play them with C4 saying no more 95 and if you're not careful I'm about to play C5 and win a beast furthermore leading to a rather passive position for black so don't go Knight B6 play Knight f8 instead and after that make sure to follow it up with the key money for that you are not even before this structure we're gonna be setting up the sniper Bishop to C7 preventing Queen D6 and then you have ideas such as Bishop takes on F3 if they take you infiltrate with a queen usually leading to a mating attack so I'm telling you pause it can't get harder than this huh I actually meant to say easier so to sum things up whenever you are playing the structure make sure to avoid trades at all costs because all the end games are pretty nasty to place and so I more or less has an extra opponent on the queen side keep pieces on the board and just try to direct all of your forces towards the enemy King and with that we can move on to the last chapter of the video so the most academical way of reaching the advances after C6 D4 D5 and now white pushes the pawn here you have a choice and you need to just really wisely especially as a beginner because according to the book the best thing that you can play is Bishop to F5 but just in order to kind of experience with this and get a game you need to be ready for a variety of moves like H4 G4 you need to know Knight C3 Knight F3 I can keep going the list never ends it's pretty much like you set up a first date with a girl let's say you grab drinks or something but before the actual date you need to get to know every single member of her family I'm like dude I don't even know this this is gonna be a thing isn't it possible to get the drinks without me getting to meet your uncle so for that reason I don't want to commit and I really like to play in the move C5 because after this we're pretty much restraining White's option to like around 70 percent of the time they are gonna be playing C3 and the other like 30 percent ish they are gonna be taking so you very much know what you're paying for when you're going for this variation therefore most of the times white is going to be playing the move C3 just setting up this huge Pawn Center every single one of these little boys defending each other what I recommend you play the move Knight to C6 no need to be afraid of dc5 because of 95 and mainly they are going to be playing the move Knight to F3 where I like you to take one D4 just because we're gonna be fixing the weak Pawn we're gonna be fixing a Target simply because Knight takes 24 is not a thing that would be dropping the pawn and once this happens here you pretty much get to see the main advantage of not having committed very early way to move Bishop to F5 because you can get something even better you can play Bishop to G4 and we're not only developing the bishop but we're also gaining time we have massive pressure onto the Knight and it's like not really specifically the Knight that's bothered but more so the the third Pawn you can take a look by yourself the pawn is really lacking any support in case they are very careless playing H3 congrats you just lost up one after the takes Queen takes this guy remains undefended so black is just uh better usually they are going to be playing a move such as Bishop to E2 I recommend you play E6 plays the whole time remember that the main Battlefield is the D4 Pawn so really keep an eye on this thing and after castles you just want to be playing the move Knight E7 preparing Knight F5 and once you get that we will be having tremendous pressure onto the default Pawn if white tries to be sneaky and stop that with Bishop to G5 you can simply unpin go Queen B6 creating a double attack and also just getting ready to play Knight onto F5 onto the next move black is already better instead the more normal Knight C3 is going to be met by Knight F5 creating a farad of Bishop takes on F3 and then the pawn remains undefended pretty much forcing white in playing Bishop to E3 where I want you to not play Bishop to B4 okay like way too many people go Bishop to B4 thinking they get a trade but at the end of the day that is simply gonna be strengthening a white spawn Center uh therefore I want you to stick with a more humble Bishop to E7 also please make sure to delay Knight takes on E34 as long as you can this is not the most active bishop ever and that would simply improve White's Pawn structure and the only time when we actually take on E3 is when the Knight is getting pressured so uh Play Bishop E7 and after H3 I want you to really remember this rule because whenever you are dealing with the advanced variation we are gonna be meeting H3 with Bishop takes on F3 and this is like really logical okay we are getting rid of the Knight because the Knight is covering the main important Square D4 so we're pretty much weakening their control over that and after Bishop takes an if they get castled and you can continue with this type of moves like either will come to C8 Bishop goes to G5 push your pawns onto the queen side you have Knight E5 Knight C4 ideas to maneuver and black is already slightly better now in the uh less likely scenario where they're gonna be meeting C5 by taking you have a choice according to the book best movies E6 but I don't want to be looking in the bishop when we have Alternatives sometimes even at a cost of a pawn so I'm a huge fan of Knight C6 just because beginners don't really know how to react against this properly and most of the times they're gonna be playing something like Knight F3 allowing Bishop G4 and after Bishop e to E6 they have pretty much no way in really supporting that on onto C5 and not only that we're winning Magna opponent C5 but notice that without the enemy Pawn on D4 the camera the defending E5 this little guy is gonna become very weak and already there's a threat of taking and picking up the pawn so why can't I Bishop F4 defending but here please feel free to pause the video and try to find a little winning sequence that black has available because we can continue it Bishop takes on F3 and the point is that we're gonna follow this up with Bishop to D4 which is a very cunning double attack you have no idea how many times you can get this opportunity and no need to be afraid of the fact that okay you haven't castled the position is completely safe after something like this we're ready to Castle we can block any checks with a knight so this is already just better last thing before we close the advanced chapter we looked at it from the academical point of view but a lot of your opponents are gonna be very weird okay they may start with a move like Knight F3 and then try to confuse you with E5 but essentially this is gonna lead to the same thing if you do Bishop G4 try E6 c596 so they're probably gonna do this go E6 then c596 with a transposition similarly they can also play uh F4 into the second move and when the pawn reaches the E5 Square this should be a signal to you that we are dealing with the advance so in the advance we do C5 Knight C6 wait for the night so we can get the pin and black just has a very easy game so if this is any interesting to you make sure to watch the video a couple of times I did my best in ignoring all the kind of top level nonsense that never gets played below 1800 in online games and if you wanna strengthen your knowledge even further please feel free to check out the playlist that we have with practical games where I'm doing live play and explain highlighting typical beginner mistakes that they usually are making

Channel: IM Alex Banzea

Views: 217,233

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Id: 8erPw1WADrQ

Length: 21min 57sec (1317 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023