Name: How to CRUSH with the Caro-Kann!
Uploaded: 2025-04-01T00:51:28.000Z
Duration: 34 min 27 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another chess opening video.

This one is on my favorite, the Karo-Khan defense.

Adverbs of degree

It's a very easy opening to learn to play with the black pieces.

It's against E4, the King's Pawn, which I will show you.

And it's an opening that actually holds a dear place in my heart, because when I quit chess between the ages of 12 and 15, the thing that brought me back was a book by Lars Skendorf called Grandmaster Repertoire 7, the Karo-Khan.

And my first win over a master player rated 2200 was in the Karo-Khan.

So this video is split into this portion, which is the theory.

All the moves are in the description for you to play around with.

And then I have two training games against my subscribers, and I have a Karo-Khan course on my website.

If you want something besides E4, you've got to go to a different video.

You build for the center with your C pawn, because if they take you, you want to take back like this in the center of the board.

So, first we're going to look at the very standard two pawns in the center approach.

Then we are going to take a look at everything besides that.

At this point, the way I want you to think about this is what does white do to the pawn in the middle?

We're going to begin with pushing, because this is what's played the most, because people don't want to take.

They see that they can push and advance like this, and you can't play this traditional move, Nf6.

So, against this pawn wedge, theory says that Bf2, f5 is the most successful move and the most common.

To develop the bishop outside of the pawn chain and then play e6 like this, and then attack the center with c5.

Now, this variation is great, but in my opinion, I think the more advanced folks should explore this.

I think that there is a far simpler approach for intermediate and beginner players, and I'm going to show it to you.

It's my main recommendation in my course, and I recommend it for a reason.

The reason I don't like this is because if you wait too long, you will be subjected to a bit of a space disadvantage, and if you don't know how to handle these positions, you'll get suffocated.

So, I recommend that against the advanced variation, you fight with this move right away.

And the whole point is, you're trying to actually get them to take you.

Because then you're going to develop your knight to c6.

So, the c-pawn moves a second time to dislodge the wedge in the center, you bring the knight out, and the second this knight gets to f3 to defend this pawn, you throw the bishop out there to pin it.

Sometimes, the bishop will go to f5, but most times, you're going to wait for this move and then play this.

This is how I like to play this position with black, and let me just show you what this can look like.

You will slowly maximize the pressure on these two pawns, and then try to take both of them.

So, your next move, once you get the bishop out of this area, is going to be to play something like e6, because now your bishop is not locked in anymore, okay?

Then you're going to take this pawn back.

If it gets defended, your knight loves to go to f5.

It cannot go to f6, so it likes to go to e7, and then after something like this, to f5.

Now, if you're confused what's going on with this bishop, if this bishop ever gets attacked, that's a waste of time, because you're going to take, and then this has no defense anymore.

The most tricky thing in this opening is when to take that e5 pawn, because I don't want you to weaken your king so much.

There can be, like, worst-case scenarios where you accidentally— let me just show you just a really funny example— leave this whole diagonal open, and get hit with this, and lose, because now you have to block with the queen, and that's bye-bye.

You need to stay patient with c5 and when they take you, right?

Stay patient, jump the knight out, get this bishop to pin.

Now, if they play something like bishop to f4, you might need to go back to plan B of bishop f5 and e6, because if you block in your bishop, that will just be a little bit tragic, although it's actually not that bad.

Believe it or not, in this position, you actually can play this move.

Your bishop will just need to deal with problems later.

Now, I only looked at captures, by the way.

Knight c6, you wait for the knight, you pin it, and then at some point, you're ready, right?

c9 e7, or you can take, take, take, take, and you go for that pawn.

After you take the knight, and you take the pawn, this knight pressures the center.

You need to go move-by-move, obviously, whether they've taken you or not, whether they've defended their pawn in the center, but this move, c5, in my opinion, forces the issue so quickly, and really fights on the pawn structure, makes white really, really have to defend these pawns, which intermediate players are not very good at.

They're not very good at making controlling opening moves.

You're going to have a lot of games you win both those pawns.

Just be careful of that diagonal check, and try to follow those rules.

Obviously, there is more in-depth theory here.

I don't go into that in excruciating detail, because I want to show you a brief 15-minute summary.

You, the more advanced players, can go take a look at opening databases, use the engine, not during the games.

Anyway, that's a little bit about the advanced variation.

Exchange variation can happen after d4 or whenever.

Like, this is also the exchange variation.

You take back, let me just, we can look at it with both pawns in the center.

The simplest game plan, by far, get your knights out, and actually move them first, because you know they're going to go there.

And then, move the bishop out before you block it in with your e-pawn, and then move your dark-squared bishop.

Oh, sorry, two moves in a row by me by accident. e6, bishop d6.

The exchange variation for white, when they take on d5, is only considered, according to theory, the exchange variation when they put the bishop to d3.

There is a little sub-variation here when they actually attack your pawn with this pawn, because they're actually trying to, you know, dislodge you.

It's not known as the exchange, although they have taken your pawn.

And by the way, you can employ much of the similar game plan here.

But because this is very demanding on your center, what you can do is actually develop and defend it first, because you don't want to help white develop.

You don't need to help white develop here.

You want to try to solidify your center as much as possible, so you're always taking with a pawn.

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How to CRUSH with the Caro-Kann!

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