Cool Caro Kann

I played black in this game.

I almost exclusively play the caro-kann when black against 1. e4 and I'm really proud of the sequence of moves,

5. .. c5
6. c3, **bxf3** (pulling his lsb over)
7. bxf3, cxd4
8. cxd4

By pulling his lsb over, it stopped him from being able to put me in check.

Also, Idk if it was correct or not, but i purposely avoided 10. .. Qxd4 and figured I could pick that pawn up at a later stage, and instead went on with my development of my king knight.

My opponent did a slightly different Short Variation of the Caro-Kann and I tried (seemingly successfully) tried to find the differences between what he did and respond accordingly. Specifically, I was able to get my bishop to g4 opposed to f5, pinning his knight to his queen. I believe this is what made this little sequence of moves possible.

EDIT: Well, I guess he broke the pin with his bishop one turn later, but still, my bishop being on f5 allowed me to capture the knight, thus pulling the bishop over.

10 b3 was an error: he should keep his central d-pawn and give you his b-pawn.

Yea, the game after move 10 wasn't very instructive, but my question is (to anyone), why would you play the

Karo Cann Advance, "Botvinnik-Carls Defense" variation? I thought the whole idea was to get your bishop outside the pawn chain. After

1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. e5 c5
5. dxc5 e6



you're in a french setup (French advance, Steinitz), and a move behind. By comparison

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
e. e5. c5
4. dxc5

The lost tempo does not hurt in the closed position.
This is a bad variation for white: normally white does not take dxc5 and defends his central pawn d4, the base of his pawn chain. Trading central pawn d4 for wing pawn c5 is to black's advantage.