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 with the bishop to get it developed, as we wouldn’t have many squares available if we instead captured with the knight. After Bb5, pinning our knight, let’s give a check.

White will of course block with the knight, saving the bishop. This allows us to play a6 and resolve the tension. If the bishop drops back to a4, we can simply capture the c5 pawn with our bishop, since our queen is now adding pressure to c5. So let’s instead look at Bxd7+, where white holds onto the pawn.

After we capture back with our bishop. White can play the sneaky move a3 to continue to hang onto the pawn. The problem is that if we now capture with our bishop, white has b4, forking our bishop and queen. Luckily we have a nice move here.

Qc7 all but equalizes here. If white plays b4, holding the pawn, we can play b6, undermining the pawn chain. Note that the knight on c3 is hanging in this line.

Black gets the pawn back and has a much more solid position. We’ve won the opening and we will continue to the middle game with an advantage. Let’s take a look at our plan moving forward.

In the final position, white has weak pawns on e5 and c2. Our plan is to develop the knight to e7 then g6 to put pressure on the e5 pawn. Bf7 is next, followed by O-O. We can even play f6 to undermine the e5 pawn to open up lines.

We cover several other lines of the Advance Variation with cxd5 in our course. Check it out now or try it for free.