Caro-Kann Chess Defense: History of the Caro-Kann Opening

The Caro-Kann Defense (or Caro-Kann Opening) is an opening chess game parry between white and black pawns. Like the Sicilian and French defenses, the Caro-Kann is just two moves—in this case white’s e-pawn to e4 and black’s c-pawn to c6.

The defense derives its name from two nineteenth-century chess players, Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann. The name doesn’t refer to a match the two played against each other, but rather, one Kann swiftly and triumphantly played against another prominent player of the era (Jacques Mieses).

If you’d like to play through and study that specific chess match yourself, the game proceeded as such: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Bd3 Bxd3 5.Qxd3 e6 6.f4 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.Nf3 Qb6 9.0-0 Nh6 10.b3 cxd4 11.cxd4 Nf5 12.Bb2 Rc8 13.a3 Ncxd4 14.Nxd4 Bc5 15.Rd1 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 Bxd4+ 17.Qxd4 Rc1 18.Kf2 Rxd1 19.Qxb6 axb6 20.Ke2 Rc1 21.Kd2 Rg1 22.g3 Kd7 23.a4 Rc8 24.b4 Rcc1.

Caro joined Kann to study how the latter proved to be so successful, and they named the opening moves of this game after themselves. Since then, many world championship chess players have used this defense. It was a formative part of the Alekhine-Bruce match of 1938, as well as in a 2013 World Championship match between the Scandinavian Magnus Carlsen and India’s Viswanathan Anand. It figured heavily in Soviet-era play as well—Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Tigran Petrosian, Vasily Smyslov, and Boris Spassky have all deployed the Caro-Kann Defense.

Whether you’re playing as the white or black pieces on the chessboard, you should know the basics of the Caro-Kann Defense. Follow these three steps to execute it:

1. 1. White plays e4. If you’re playing as white and hope to trigger the player controlling black to launch the defense, you need to begin with the King’s Pawn Opening. That’s to say: Move your e-pawn two spaces ahead to e4. If you’re playing as black and want to use the defense, all you can do during this first move is hope your opponent will use this opening. Seeing as it’s the most common in all of chess, your odds are fairly good that they will.
2. 2. Black responds with c6. Now, the defense itself actually begins. Black responds to white by moving their c-pawn one space ahead to c6. This pawn structure starts black off in a more solid position than white defensively, but it does give white more of an open space advantage. Still, statistically speaking, this early move more often sets up a successful black endgame than a white one.
3. 3. Both players proceed to a new strategy. Now that the main line of play has been set down initially, both players can proceed through the next few moves of opening play into the middlegame. There are both classic and modern variations either side can use at this point, switching between strategies along the way.

The Caro-Kann Defense (or Caro-Kann Opening) set of moves are just the start of your game. Here are seven ways gameplay might continue strategically:

1. 1. The Advance Variation: This maneuver gets multiple pawns on the board before black sends out the light-squared bishop to attack. This early economy of motion for the bishop is one of the main reasons to consider the Caro-Kann Defense. It fell out of favor after Aron Nimzowitsch used it and wound up losing, but it has since become popular again.
2. 2. The Bronstein-Larsen Variation: Named for world championship contenders David Bronstein and Bent Larsen, this strategy sees both players sacrifice a knight—but black gets an open file along which to send their kingside rook in this variation. You can play through it like so: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6.
3. 3. The Classical Variation: Deployed often by José Raúl Capablanca, this variation eventually sets up the black player to castle with their kingside or queenside rook. Although there are several ways to play through initial phases of the Classical Variation, this is one of the most common: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 (or 3.Nd2) dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5. 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3.
4. 4. The Exchange Variation: In order to perform this variation, all white and black have to do is play exd5 cxd5 as their third moves, respectively. More sophisticated versions of the Exchange Variation include the Panov-Botvinnik Attack (similar to the Queen’s Gambit) and the Accelerated Panov.
5. 5. The Fantasy Variation: Sometimes called the Tartakower Variation, players can move through the Fantasy Variation as soon as black plays dxe4 as their third move. From then on, the variation proceeds like so: 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 Nd7 7.0-0 Ngf6 8.c3 Bd6.
6. 6. The Korchnoi Variation: Similar to its Bronstein-Larsen counterpart, the Korchnoi Variation calls for a different pawn to take white’s knight. Compare and contrast it by studying these initial moves: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6.
7. 7. The Two Knights Variation: If you’re playing as white, this variation allows you to respond to the black player’s Caro-Kann Defense in a unique way—by putting both white knights on the board early on. The order in which you do so can change, as evidenced here: 1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 (or 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3).

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