The Caro Kann is an interesting defense where you trade the bad bishop of the French for a bad bishop, knight and rook.
It's primarily played by players who enjoy playing against extreme pressure on the kingside with the added spice of 3 immobilized pieces.
I'm addicted to this opening. Spend a couple games playing this defense and I'm not afraid to die at all.
Standing in the road daring vehicles to hit me.
"Officer, I think he's drunk!"
"No, ma'am. He's just a bad chess player."
french
Caro-Kann is a better French
Scandinavian is a better Caro-Kann
And Bongcloud is a better Scandinavian!
The Modern Fools Mate:
1. e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3. Ke2 Qe5#
Then you say that your opponent was just to good an there was nothing you could have done
But honestly, if white remembers to go Nc3 before Ke2, or does anything else reasonable, black is worse for the entire game unless white makes a big mistake. Move order tricks are important.
#3 what makes what better?
@Lord-Damianson In French you often end up in a fairly closed position where you have to do a lot of shuffling around your pieces to get anywhere, are stuck with a bad bishop, and have to be patient to gain the initiative.
In Caro-Kann, it's basically the same as the French except you don't have the bad bishop.
In Scandi, because you usually trade off the opponent's e pawn right away, you often end up in a Caro-like structure without the bad bishop and the position is more open.
#6
Botvinnik changed from French to Caro-Kann after some losses to Smyslov.
Larsen remarked that the Scandinavian reaches the same positions as the Caro-Kann in a better way.
French: Light squared bishop inside the pawn chain, much faster counterplay in view of pawn breaks (...c5 and ...f6), more options in popular lines (to 3. Nc3 3...Nf6 and 3...Bb4 are viable options as well and not only 3...dxe4, to 3...Nd2 you can play 3...c5 instead of 3...dxe4 that's played in Caro-Kann). The exchange variation is likely to end up in a draw due to symmetry in pawn structure, however there are ways to develop pieces non-symmetrically. You can more often than not trade your light squared bishop via ...b6 followed by ...Ba6, this approach is Caro-Kann like, as you're trying to make good trades for you, but they will take some time and slow down your counterplay. You can fianchetto it sometimes (Rubinstein variation with 3. Nc3 (3. Nd2) dxe4).
Caro-Kann: Light squared bishop is exchanged or fianchettoed, counterplay in view of pawn breaks (...c5 and sometimes ...f6) is much slower because you spend an additional tempo to achieve the break ...c5 as you play ...c6 before ...c5, you're often behind in development, solid light square pawn placement, knowledge of theory is a must, otherwise you can get into trouble very early and easily, endgames are better (minority attack in exchange variation and better bishop).
@LaserGuy If that's the case then I guess the word "better" might not be suitable for this instance... It's all a matter of personal preference... I've played them all Caro-Kann... French.. Scandi... I'm good at all of them but because I really love closed and complicated positions I play the french most of the time(I'm most comfortable with closed positions.. reason why I don't play 1. e4 and I avoid 1. e4 c4...so that I'll avoid open games)... So I think the word "better" will be a matter of personal preference.. If I'm to arrange the openings in order of which is better based on my style of play It'll be French > Scandinavian > Caro-Kann....
😀 I'm hoping I did make sense though... but either ways It's just my personal opinion.
