The Caro-Kann exchange isn’t white’s best try for an advantage. It often leads to dry-ish positions. Our course however, will teach you to play for the initiative. These are some of my favorite lines in the entire course.

If you want to know more about the Caro-Kann check out Caro-Kann Strategy.

Let’s kick it off with our standard Caro-Kann moves. 1. e4 c6 2.d4 d5. But not white captures on d5, just as white did in the Panov attack.

We will capture back, of course. Unlike the Panov attack (for white), we will not cover c4 in this chapter. We cover several variations in the full course as always. But here let’s look at Be3. Does that d4 pawn look undefended to anyone else? If white develops normally with Nf3, we can pin the knight and threaten to win the d4 pawn. Let’s assume white defends the pawn and plays well.

We want to develop our LSB, but unfortunately the best squares, f5 and g4, are covered by whites pieces. So let’s bring our knight out instead. When white developers their knight we’ll be able to pin it to the queen.

White develops their knight to e2. f3 is the most common, and more active square. However, Nf3 allows us a very annoying pin that we will utilize more long-term. The knight on e2 does allow white to play f3 (sorry Finegold). And f3 is a very solid move here to break the pin. It’s important we come back to d7. Bh5 is also acceptable, but the bishop is a bit out of play on that side of the board.

After we retreat our bishop, white has a seemingly good-looking move in Bf4. Developing with tempo. But we have a good move of our own. e5! This strikes at the center, disrupts the attack on our queen and opens up space for our dark squared bishop.

If your chess instincts are telling you to avoid this pin, you have good instincts. But let’s take a look around. There is no d-pawn to add an attacker. The queen cannot point without 2 tempi. There are no good knight maneuvers to add pressure to the pinned piece. We are also going to put our bishop on d6, where it is most happy, to break the pin. Black already has the advantage.

Let’s take stock of the resulting position. Our bishops are quite good. We should protect our dark square bishop as black has very weak dark squares. We would love to trade a knight for white’s dark squared bishop. Our plan is to get developed, castle kingside, and maybe play Qb6+, winning the b-pawn if the timing allows.