Road to 2000 Lichess - Caro-Kann Minority Attack | Training Game #09
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- A chess training game, trying to play the Keep it Simple Chessable repertoires from IM Christof Sielecki. This game I played the Caro-Kann Exchange Variation with black and went for the classical plan 'the minority attack.'
Disclaimer: I don't disclose specific content from the course. I try to play the lines as accurately as possible, but I haven't memorized the entire course, and I often make mistakes in the opening. If you wish to verify the correct lines, you'll need to explore the course on your own.
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0:00 - Start Game
25:52 - About the Game - Ігри
earlier in the game, if you want to castle short then be7 should be played. it's possible to castle long and keep the game as sharp as it can get, and there it doesn't matter that white can take on f6 since you are angling to attack his king anyway and gxf6 helps you and not him. so therefore if you intend to castle long qc7 bd6 and preferably ne7 so that you can move all of your pawns and you have a lot of options. putting the knight on f6 is a bit of a committal move here believe it or not. it takes away some of your sharper options. some f6-g5 plans or f6-e5 even.
this is why if you can, you should first start with qc7 (stopping bf4 incidentally) bg4 and bd6 and only decide where the knight should go depending on whether you want a sharp position or not. nf6 goes with 00, while ne7 goes well with 000.
with the minority attack you can prepare it by first bringing your pieces to their optimal squares, bd6, rb8 rc8 qc7 nc4 if possible, while you should not allow white to meet ..b5 with b4, when he can follow up with a knight reaching the c5 square (nb3-c5 or sometimes nd3-c5) remember that when you play b5 you cannot fight for the c5 square anymore so allowing a knight there supported by 2 pawns is just positional suicide. this also explains why the bishop should be on d6, keeping an eye on c5 and e5 where the knight might go.
Thanks for the great comment again. I'm om vacation now, going to reply a bit later.
One thing I know now from the course is that if white goes for this move order with Nf3, c3 and delaying Bd3 or Be2 we can play Bf5. If they go for Nf3 and Bd3 before c3 we should play Qc7 like you suggest also.
The long castling option is also very interesting!
Your remarks about the minority attack are very instructive. I should the chapter from Chess Structures again on that.
you should raise your level of calculation more than going deep into the lines in the course. some ideas there require calculation in order to be fully understood. and also in more than half of the positions you face, you need to think for yourself anyway and here calculation and logical thinking usually are enough, even if you don't remember the exact lines.
the course helps when you understand it fully along with the nuances, but really the biggest upside of it is when you get to 2000 and above. i am around 2000 in playing strength. that is when you start facing the actual lines in the course more often that it makes learning the lines more valuable.
calculation and logical thinking can get you close to 2000, having the course only slightly improves the speed of that progress and only if you understood the course to some degree. so focus on the universally useful things like calculation (this includes tactical vision and evaluation) and technique (includes logical thinking, mostly about how to increase an advantage in a methodical way without creating unnecessary complications, also converting to a win in the same manner.)
i personally wouldn't recommend the caro kann as a starting repertoire just because you surrender space voluntarily and mostly you are on the receiving end of tactics when you should be on the other side of that. i always give 1 e4 e5 as a starting opening.
the qgd and 1 e4 i have no complaints. the point is just to experience tactical fights that you initiate, not the opponent. qgd is lukewarm in that regard but good enough for me.
the biggest improvement i got was when i changed they way i play from very dry and technical ( i had the caro kann, some boring line of the qgd and a boring line in the 1 d4 openings like the london) to tactical. (1 e4 for white, 1 e4 e5 ruy lopez and king's indian for black)
i did not like tactical play but i realized i needed it as a foundation for everything else and that i did not have to like it i just need to be good at it and so i made the change. it may not work for everyone else but in my opinion tactical skill is needed if you want to get near 2000, and therefore the positions and consequently the openings one should play should be tactical in nature if it can be done.
i am not saying the caro is entirely dry because i know there are some sharp lines there but that is mostly because white chose them and not black. i would prefer to be able to create the sharp position than wait for my opponent to do that. this is also why i wouldn't recommend the french defense either for the same reasons.
you can keep the caro but be mindful that you should try to get tactical positions whenever you can as it is already very difficult to get it there to begin with.
Are you 2000 OTB? Was is it difficult to get there?
@@KeepChessSimple it wasn't difficult but also not quick. just prepare to do it for some time before you see any meaningful progress. translating the knowledge into a usable skill in chess is quite hard and this is the thing that takes a lot of time.
@@unrequited119 I get what you are saying about openings. To be honest, I fell into the trap of switching openings and spending too much time on them many times in my chess carreer. With a job and a two year old toddler running around, I have very limited time for chess so I won't be switching anytime soon so I can spend my time on other areas of the game. But maybe one day I will switch for 1...e5 for black and going to learn all those gambits and sharp lines :p
@@KeepChessSimple it is fine to switch openings say about 6 months or so, if the goal is to learn how to play a completely different but almost universal pawn structure or middlegame position. that is what i have done up until now. but you should park your current opening in favor of learning a new one only if you have learned enough and gained enough experience in your current opening, and not because you have bad results or don't like the positions you are getting. if anything you should keep playing it if this is the case. not liking something could mean it is not good but it could also mean you just don't understand it enough.
my philosophy has always been to try to understand things i may not like or be good at from the start instead of discarding them in favor of something else. because i might run out of "something else" and might need to go back to the very thing i did not like in the first place.
you need to learn how to play with the initiative especially at the expense of some material. you will rarely get that in closed or semi closed openings ( qgd is closed, caro kann is semi closed) and this is why you need to start with open games and gambits, you don't have to make them your permanent repertoire but you need the skill of how to play with the initiative because that is a universal skill required to be good. in fact the caro kann is basically the opposite of that in most lines in your course, as you are playing against the initiative that white has in most main lines.
simple tactical motifs are building blocks of calculation, evaluation or how you judge a position is part of calculation.
calculation is what you use when you either have the initiative or are fighting against it. however, when you are on the defensive, calculation is way more difficult and way too impractical. therefore it is better to be on the offensive side of it, where you wield the initiative. defensive calculation should be reserved for later. you want to learn how to win by attacking for now, and not by defending voluntarily.
there are positions when you need to defend but you should let that occur naturally and not induce it.
you can keep playing the openings you have right now, but you should start making a conscious effort of trying to get the initiative in return for sacrificing some material if you see an opportunity.