Let’s continue our Essential Strategy series on the Caro-Kann. We've covered the Advance variations. But what happens if they instead capture our pawn early? Well, we'll capture to start of course. Then we'll put our pieces on good square and play for an initiative. After we capture back, if white plays the immediate c4, we're in Panov territory. We have a fun setup to play here, and we're going to temporarily gambit a pawn. White will develop their knights, and we'll follow suit. After all four knights are in the mix, we come…

Let's continue our Essential Strategy series on the Caro-Kann. In part 1, we looked at the Caro-Kann advance with c3. But what happens if white instead takes the pawn on c5? Let's take a look. We will play e3 here to immediately attack the c5 pawn. White has many options here that we cover in the full course. Let's look at what happens if white tries to hold the pawn with the move Be3. Nd7 attacks the pawn again and threatens to capture the pawn. We'd prefer to capture back…

Let's continue our Essential Strategy Series with the Caro-Kann. This is the first in a 10-part series going over this wonderful Opening. Let's begin! The Caro-Kann is a wonderful tool for black. Our course goes over 10 lines in the advance variation. We will cover the most essential in this post. About half of all your games will start with 1.e4. After you play c6, about half of all games continue with d4. We will play d5 to fight for the center. The advance variation happens at this point. White…

Chess introduced me to a rich culture of players from all over the world. Opponents direct their own musical scores for a quartet of offense, defense, strategy, and prophylaxis. Once a game monopolized by intellectual elites, it now exists near park benches and pubs where the lives of me and my friends intersect at the board over a pint. The beauty, the balance, the poignancy – these all bring me back to the game time and time again.

Nearly a year ago I wrote an article setting out my 2023 Chess Goals. Speaking with Matt, wethought it would be interesting to reflect on the past year, highlight the lessons learned and set newgoals for 2024. Lots happened during 2023: improving from 1382 (provisional) to 1508 rating (in the January 2024 FIDE list) playing 46 rated OTB games for +23 -16 =7 (57.61%) winning two rating category prizes and one tournament outright (with 1864 performance) publishing my first course for ChessGoals on the Nimzo-Indian still playing the London System…