Countering the Caro-Kann!
Do you find it hard to play against the Caro-Kann Defence (1.e4 c6)?
This opening has a quite solid reputation, and is popular enough at club level that we should make sure we are ready for it!
In fact, I used to play the Caro-Kann quite a bit, with good results as it seemed a good fit with my style. Here is one example:
However, I recently decided not to play the Caro-Kann anymore, after being unable to equalize against the Two Knights Variation, shown below:
This used to be a sideline compared to systems like the Advance Variation (Short System), which I've written about in earlier posts. However, thanks mainly to the efforts of Maxime Vachier Lagrave, it has become not only a mainline, but the strongest one, too.
I struggled a lot against the Caro-Kann around 2010-2013, and I know that many of my students also had some challenges against this opening, before I showed them a good system and some appropriate plans to play. I wish I had studied the Two Knights more seriously back then, as it would have very much improved my results and my confidence with 1.e4!
That's why, tomorrow afternoon, I'll be releasing my 1-hour video course 'Countering the Caro-Kann and Scandinavian' to the members of 'The Chess Improvement Group', which you can access for less than $10 a month.
To give you a taste of this opening, here's my analysis of a recent Vachier Lagrave win, where MVL uses Kaufman's 2019 recommendation on move 6 instead of my recommendation in the video series, but still gets a good game and wins!
I hope you enjoyed the game and learned a lot! Let me know how your games go with 6.Be2
If you liked this blog post, I think you will love the video course, which shows what to do against the major replies by Black. It's just like one of my one hour private chess lessons, only you can watch it whenever you want, and pause to think about the puzzles I set for as long as you need! And you can ask your questions or share your games and ideas at any time in the group for further guidance.
You'll get this and a litany of other bonuses when you join The Chess Improvement Group! Click here to become a member of our chess community now
I struggled a lot against the Caro-Kann around 2010-2013, and I know that many of my students also had some challenges against this opening, before I showed them a good system and some appropriate plans to play. I wish I had studied the Two Knights more seriously back then, as it would have very much improved my results and my confidence with 1.e4!
That's why, tomorrow afternoon, I'll be releasing my 1-hour video course 'Countering the Caro-Kann and Scandinavian' to the members of 'The Chess Improvement Group', which you can access for less than $10 a month.
To give you a taste of this opening, here's my analysis of a recent Vachier Lagrave win, where MVL uses Kaufman's 2019 recommendation on move 6 instead of my recommendation in the video series, but still gets a good game and wins!
I hope you enjoyed the game and learned a lot! Let me know how your games go with 6.Be2
If you liked this blog post, I think you will love the video course, which shows what to do against the major replies by Black
. It's just like one of my one hour private chess lessons, only you can watch it whenever you want, and pause to think about the puzzles I set for as long as you need! And you can ask your questions or share your games and ideas at any time in the group for further guidance.You'll get this and a litany of other bonuses when you join The Chess Improvement Group! Click here to become a member of our chess community now
