Crush the Caro-Kann by FM Midas Ratsma

Smash the Caro-Kann with surprise attacks!

The Caro-Kann can be quite an annoying opening for 1.e4 players. It’s got a sturdy reputation, and while you probably won’t get checkmated in 10 moves, it can be hard to know how to undermine Black’s position.

Crush the Caro-Kann shows you how with aggressive sidelines in the Advance Variation, you can make things very uncomfortable for unsuspecting opponents.

A peek inside at the ideas:

♟ Fight back against the mainline (3…Bf5) with the aggressive Bayonet Attack (4.g4)– chasing the light-square bishop away and allowing you to bury Black’s dark-square bishop

♟ Show Black how dangerous an early 3…c5 by Black can be if they are not fully prepared– protect the pawn, develop calmly and delay capture on c5

♟ Punish the typical mistakes made by Caro-Kann club players– including a dazzling queen sacrifice that will leave you two pieces up

Here’s an example of how savage the Bayonet Attack can be:

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.g4 Be4 5.f3 Bg6 6.e6

Black’s dark-square bishop has no room to develop! A long-term pawn sacrifice completely paralyzes Black’s kingside, squeezing Black and making them pay dearly for not taking the center.