Caro-Kann Defence

1...c6 is the Caro-Kann. Black prepares to play 2...d5, with the c pawn ready to take back should White take it.

In the traditional Open Game (1. e4 e5), many of the big threats that Black faces target their weak f7-square with White's bishop positioned on c4. Black often can consider this threat resolved if they succeed in pushing their queen's pawn to d5, controlling c4. So, by achieving d5, Black makes their kingside safer.

Compared to the French defence, which prepares 2...d5 with 1...e6 instead, this avoids blocking in Black's own bishop, but at the cost of preventing Black from playing Nc6. Additionally, if Black later wishes to assault White's centre with c5, they will have lost a tempo on this move.

2. d4 is the mainline. By not making a threat or controlling d4, Black allowed White to put two pawns in the centre. Black responds with 2...d5 and then the game can go in several directions depending on how White proceeds. Options include trading pawns, advancing the e-pawn to e5, or defending the e4 pawn with a piece or pawn.

A sideline is the Two Knights attack, where White plays 2. Nc3, defending e4, followed by 3. Nf3, or 2. Nf3 followed by 3. Nc3. It is played about once for every ten games in the mainline. Usually, White will wait a little bit before placing the d pawn on d4 and sometimes just places it on the d3 square.

2. c4, the Accelerated Panov attack, is an aggressive sideline. Recognising that Black is determined to play d5, White wishes to make it impossible for them to hold onto it. This usually results in White and Black exchanging two pawns: 2...d5 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5. In this line, White hopes to weaken Black's c- and d-files. White ends up with an isolated queen's pawn which may be a liability in the long run.

Some other rare moves:

2. d3 is the Breyer variation. This move is fine but unambitious. After 2...d5, White's plan is to allow Black to take on e4. White plays 3. Nd2 to prevent trading the queens after 3...dxe4 4. dxe4.

2. b3 is the Euwe attack, preparing to fianchetto. White intends to give up their centre to Black and plays in a hypermodern style instead. Why-for start with 1. e4 then, and not 1. b3? Unclear, but with this idea Max Euwe triumphed over Richard Reti in 1920.^[1]

2. Bc4?! is called the Hillbilly attack. White, seeing Black is indubitably planning 2...d5, kindly makes 2...d5 even more appealing by letting Black kick their knight while they're at it. This is certainly bad but (at the amateur level at least) not as rare as you might assume.

The earliest recorded games beginning 1. e4 c6 are from 1845 and 1847. The first game that continued 2. d4 d5 was published in 1859.^[2]

By the 1880s it was attributed to Horatio Caro, who played it and introduced it into master games, and Marcus Kann, who analysed it.^[2] A 1888 issue of Chess Monthly annotated it as, "introduced by the late Herr Kann, of Pest, and adopted in practice by Herr Caro, of Berlin. It gives a safe but dull game."^[2]

Its reputation is largely the same today: a solid, defensive reply to e4, albeit one not as dynamic or combative as other approaches. It's popular with players trying to avoid learning reams of Sicilian theory. Today it is Black's fourth- or fifth-most common defence against 1. e4, much less common than 1...c5, 1...e5, or 1...e6, so makes a good surprise weapon.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. e4 c6

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Approximate chances

White win 33%, Draw 43%, Black win 24%.

Estimated next move popularity

d4 72%, Nf3 8%, Nc3 8%, c4 5%, d3 3%, f4 1%, Bc4 1%, other moves less than 0.5%.

Wikipedia has related information at Caro-Kann Defence

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.

• Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.

• 365Chess: 1. e4 c6