Caro-Kann

In about a month-and-a-half, in the last round of the tournament, I am paired up with a talented young player - who is known for his brilliant tactics, and 'caveman' (Mikhail Tal) style play in the Middlegame. Not wanting to allow him to reach his 'comfort zone', I am looking for a quieter defense, against his pet first move - 1.e4.

I am currently thinking of playing the Caro-Kann against him, but the question is - can/will it hold? Botvinnik couldn't even stop Tal from conjuring an attack out of thin air using the Caro Kann...

Well, as discussed in Attacking the Caro-Kann, White can conjure up an attack by playing an early c4--of course, he must take some risks! For a draw, I play the ...Qa5 Scandinavian. It's a simple system and often you end up in positions like the Caro-Kann / Bronstein-Larsen variation but you side-step the Panov and Fantasy variations.

If White's content with a draw, he usually gets one, but if White over-presses the attack against Black's solid Fort Knox, White often gets smashed.

Either way, do prepare an answer for the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit.

If you can wield it properly, the Caro-Kann is a very solid and practical defense.

thx 4 ur posts!

i am using the Batsford Chess Openings *published in 1989!* Chess Openings for Black Explained, and some pages from Jeremy Silman's Chess strategies - a-z. Sad...

Any good Caro-Kann books out there?

I use the Caro Kann as my main opening vs 1. e4 and I find it suits my style, since I am a defensive player. I find that the Caro firstly tends to throw people off due to it's flank opening start, I'm sure it's much less played than the Sicilian which has a much bigger repertoire to learn (for both white and black). I view the C-K as a defensively safe opening which has a disadvantage of possibly being a bit cramped. Often you will have to weather an all out attack and then you will end up mopping white up when he runs out of steam.

The classical exchange and advance variations are the most commonly seen and they are usually closed games, often quite positional in middlegame, but the Panov-Botvinnik and Accelerated Panov are gambits for white that will break the game wide open, and can be very sharp to play.

I started learning the C-K when a very strong player I know told me he hated playing against the C-K: good enough for me! I had to learn it then....

And if you are playing against a player of the same strength as Botvinnik or Tal, you are certainly going to get a thrashing. If your opponent has merely some of the style of Tal, I recommend the C-K as solidly defensive and start working on your tactics (chess puzzles!!) to counter punch him!

a great caro kann book is " A complete defense to any kings pawn opening" which is one of silmans creations . it gives a complete repertoire against e4 based on the caro 

r u sure about that? When I searched it up, it says it was by Eric Schiller

I think the C-K is a good solid defense for black, just like the French defense, which gives black a good fighting defense especially on black,s queenside.

The Caro-Kann is good and solid as I play this opening regularly to good effect. If anyone is interested go to my recent games list and review my game against "buffel". I think a very instructive game employing the CK.