Openings · B10–B19

Caro-Kann Defence

The French's solidity without the bad bishop: …c6 first, so the bishop gets out before …e6 shuts the door.

1.e4 c6played as Black

The idea

1…c6 prepares …d5 with the c-pawn instead of the e-pawn. The point is move order: after …d5 and an exchange on e4, the bishop comes out to f5 or g4 first, and only then does …e6 go in behind it.

The cost is a tempo and a slightly passive game. Black is rarely worse and rarely much better; the wins come from the endgames the structure produces.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.e4c6

White is answering…

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Playing …e6 before the bishop is out

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 e6

The mistake: Blocking the c8 bishop in with …e6 before it has been developed.
Why it costs: That is a French Defence in which Black has spent a move on …c6 rather than the useful …c5. The one thing the Caro-Kann is for has been given away, and the drawback has been kept.
Instead: …dxe4 and …Bf5, or …Bg4 in the lines that allow it. The bishop leaves first; …e6 follows it.

The knight on d7 and mate on d6

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Qe2 Ngf6 6.Nd6#

The mistake: Developing the second knight to f6 without looking at what the queen on e2 is doing.
Why it costs: It is smothered mate on move six. The knight on d7 blocks the king's escape, the queen on e2 covers the file, and Nd6 is mate — a famous trap precisely because the losing move is the natural one.
Instead: …Ngf6 is right in this variation only after …Qc7 or …e6 has dealt with d6. With the queen on e2, look at d6 before touching the knight.

Sitting still in the Advance

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Nd7

The mistake: Treating the Caro-Kann as a fortress and letting White expand unopposed.
Why it costs: Solid is not the same as passive. Left alone, White plays g4, h4 and c4 and takes the whole board; the position has no weaknesses and no future.
Instead: Hit d4 with …c5, and back it with …Nc6 and …Qb6. The structure is solid so that you can afford to start something, not instead of starting something.

Where it fits

The lines out of it with pages of their own: Caro-Kann, Advance and Caro-Kann, Exchange.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.