Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by David Rittenhouse Date: 080614
What to do about 1. e4 the oldest question for chess players of all levels. You have so
many popular Defenses these days! I tell you the CaroKann System is the best answer to not
only get draws but wins!
The CaroKann Defense is a very old defense in chess from my database alone I was to
find quite a number games from as early as 1800s. And here is a bit History from Wikipedia:
The opening is named after the English player Horatio Caro and the Austrian Marcus Kann who analysed it
in 1886. Kann scored an impressive 17move victory with the Caro–Kann Defence against GermanBritish
chess champion Jacques Mieses at the 4th German Chess Congress in Hamburg in May 1885
So the CaroKann has been around for quite sometime now. There are many different
variations to the CaroKann. This lecture and the two to follow it will cover what to do in The
CaroKann System. We will cover three different variations:
● Classical Variation Part I
● Advance Variation Part II
● Panov Variation Part III
I will be mainly focusing on the Mainlines for each different variation. For a reference I
have used Grandmaster Repertoire 7 The CaroKann by Lars Schandorff. I have used Chess
Position Trainer to generate a complete Variation Tree which I have included with this lecture.
The Variation Tree I have included is very complex and may not appeal to most of you. All the
variations come directly the reference book I used. Memorization of this Variation Tree and
several others is one of my current goals in chess right now. This catalog of positions will serve
as a “vocabulary” to me. Most of you probably already know that language and chess are some
what linked. If you don’t know this well now you do. So most my studies of late have taken me
down the long road of memorizing a massive amount of variations and openings systems.
Building my vocabulary of positions slowly but surely. This is part what William Sedlar did to
jump 500 points in 2 years. His understanding on most every opening is very good. Due to his
extensive “vocabulary” of seen or memorized positions he's able to find the correct plan in the
opening more than most of us can. Think about that for second. Have you ever been playing
game realized hey this position looks familiar then you suddenly know exactly what to do? While I
recommend the memorizing these variations. Seeing the positions a few times should provide
the most basic idea and understanding of what to do in the CaroKann.
CaroKann Classical Variation
First before we get to any of moves or variations I want to go over a couple of the main ideas in
the CaroKann:
● White typically has space advantage.
● White has the initiative and gets to dictate the course of things quite sometime.
● Black is almost always forced to give up the lightsquared Bishop thus losing the
Bishop pair.
● Black’s pawn structure is usually solid with no weaknesses.
● Black main goal is to trade queens and reach an Endgame where his structure is
better. This Queen Trade is done with the same maneuver. Which I will show
you.
● White’s DarkSquares are usually weak in Endgame because of the advance of
the Kingside pawns. As you may have guess they’re weak on the Kingside.
● c5, e5 and b5 are the pawn breaks which free up Black’s cramped position.
● White castling long in most variations.
● Black castling short in order to fight for a win and not draw. Castling long results
mostly dead even positions in which you can safely trade everything and easily
get a draw.
Now I wanna cover typical piece placement for the Classical Variation ONLY:
● The Light Squared Bishop is always developed to f5. There are exceptions but
very few and they are rare.
● The Dark Squared Bishop is developed e7 or d6 sometimes b4 and Bxc5.
● The King’s Knight is almost always developed to f6
● The Queen’s Knight is developed to d5 via d7b6/f6
● The Queen tends to go on quest to be traded on e4. Other placements include
c7, a5, and b6.
● The Rooks quickly find their way onto d, c and bfiles. Mainly the d and cfile.
Finally we have reached the time to actually show some moves! I won’t be commenting very
much until we have reached the key position in the Classical Variation. The diagrams in this
lecture were created using Chess Position Trainer. I strongly recommend this software to
anyone wanting really build their opening knowledge. At times the diagrams will show moves
which I will briefly try to cover.
1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 dxe4
4. Nxe4 Bf5
We have reached the first key position of what defines the CaroKann Classical
Variation. Black quick develops his dark squared bishop before the door is shut with e6. (A quick
side note: In the French Defense the Queen’s Bishop is almost always behind the pawns. So you
have the same pawn structure but different piece placement.) White has a few tries the main
reply is 5. Ng3 gaining precious time on the exposed Bishop. You can see 5. Nc5 in the diagram
and this leads to some funky tactics with Black coming out on top.
5. Ng3 Bg6
As you can see White has quite different options at their disposal. We are only going to
look at one in detail today. Which is 6. h4: White wants to continue their assault on the Bishop
and gain space on the Kingside. Black may be able to exploit a weaknesses in the over extended
Kingside if he can weather the storm in the Middlegame.
6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7
A strange move by Black now. It seems like Nf6 or e6 should come first but keeping the
White off e5 is very important. In fact e5 and e4 tend to play the deciding role in most CaroKann
games. Control of those squares at all times is key! So we have 8. h5 pushing the Bishop back
and further extending White’s pawns. 8. Bd3 will likely transpose to mainline anyway.
8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6
11. Bf4 Qa5+
See now the CaroKann we have you breaking all the rules of Chess. Don’t bring your Queen to
early. Well see here the point is attempting to have White push more pawns and weaken his
structure even more.
12. Bd2 Bb4 13. c3 Be7 14. c4 Qc7
Black seems to be in full retreat. Looks can be deceiving. So here Black indeed is being
actively repelled by White. However it doesn’t seem that White can really make any progress
towards the Black King. White has options at their side here as you can see from the diagram
we have 4 different moves which all lead to very different yet similar positions. We will stay our
course on the Mainline!
15. 000 Ngf6
16. Ne4 Rd8
17. b3 Nxe4
18. Qxe4 Nf6
19. Qe2
I have decided to end the analysis here. Black has yet to castle but will he need to? Its
looks like b5 is gonna rip open the White’s King position. The d4pawn is weak. All of the
darksquares around White’s king are weak.