Started playing 10 months ago. After 6 months I was hovering around 500 with no signs of further improvement. After watching your videos I've gone past 800 in blitz and rapid. My win rate with black is much higher than my white. The Caro Khan is so solid. Feel like 1000+ in rapid is really achievable. Thanks for all the great content, its been invaluable
Yeah Alex is wonderful, when I first started I was at 800 and started watching him (Caro - if Caro doesn't happen just I just play by intuition and try to get back into structures similar to the Caro lmao and if I get white I play the Jobava london) and now I'm 1200 after 1 month. Do more puzzles on lichess, and keep watching his videos and you'll be gucci. Keep up the great work you'll break through 1000 in no time
@@POWERUPEthat jobava London is like a cheat code. I learned the basics yesterday and i jumped from 340 to 504 without any trouble. I'd say it took two or three hours. I'm still a noob but i had no idea how to win or even attack with white until i watched alex videos. my goal is 1400.
I just played a game exactly the same position as this last game and got a stalemate in the same position, with only King left. Inspirational stuff!! I would normally have resigned, always learning!
your caro and london series is simply the absolute best and most informative series on youtube imo. and I've watched a looot of different creators on these two openings
I really love this style of videos. You're teaching an opening by demonstrating how to use it and what ideas are available in it, instead of just showing the moves. That's high quality content!
I have been beta-testing Alex's course and can say without reservation that when it becomes available it will definitely be something to grab and spend a LOT of time working through.
06:13 In case White takes the knight, we will take back with the pawn (opening up rook's path towards White's king) which is leading to checkmate because the b6-bishop covers the g1-square. Should have showed that on the board, sorry for the confusion!
I got a tournament soon and ur London and Caro kann vids have helped me soo much I cant thank you enough. Wish u all the best with ur channel and ur chess career
Loving the London course, and looking forward to picking up the caro kann when it drops. Do you ever play the HA Dragon? My chess teacher gave me it as an opening to learn, and it seems like a pretty fun position to play, it would be awesome to hear your take on it/see you play it in a video in the future
I think the most challenging variation against the caro kann especially in those levels is the panov attack. I myself have trouble many times against the panov. Great video as usually 😊
Love the simplicity in your videoes. Im just wondering. Would you consider sharing pgn txt or alternatively linking the games in your video dedcription? (Going forward... not asking you to renovate all your videoes xD) It would make it a bit easier to look at the variations in the lines for us. Not to mention I know at least a handful of other chess-tubers does it.
Thanks for the tutorials bro. At first I thought you were annoying hhhhh, but now I love your videos and have so much respect for your style of play and being funny at the same time. I love it!
Can't wait for the course. Something that you do well is explain the winning strategies in the middle and end games once we've gone out of the opening. Other courses don't really cover that well. And even though the london is an opening I don't play, your course on the london really explained all those important pawn ideas in great detail. Can't wait to see what you add for your caro course. That said, what do you suggest we play vs D4 or other stuff?
Every time he says, “I think we can move on to the….”, I fear he’ll say something like, “end of the video”, but, every single time, without fail, it’s, “following game.” It’s amazing.
My brother is a real estate agent in Portugal, but he is a pretty good one in case you are interested 😆 Great video as usual, got love the Caro. Looking forward to the course!
the introduction was so unexpectedly i laughet my ass off :D "i am only 23" :D Nice Vid, thx for explaining. I really improved my Chess game with this Tipps :)
Thanks Alex for all your content. I now play the Caro-Kann and the London because of you(Thanks to your unbelievable course on chessable) When your caro-Kann course will be avalaible?
I love the Caro Kann because it's just so easy to play. No stress for the first 10 moves. I play the Botvinnik-Carls every chance I get because of it's similarity to black in d4 openings including the London. Did you know white can transport the Caro into the London?
@AlexBanzea "You deserve the wooden spoon." 😉 The easiest way to pre-move ladder mate: 1) Never make a second Queen against a lone King. Underpromote to a Rook. 2) Place the Rook in the corner of the rectangle the Queen has the lone King cornered in. (The square diagonally adjacent to the Queen.) and 3) Alternate the Queen and Rook as you did the two Queens. The simple difference: The over-powerful Queen remains shielded by the Rook while protecting it, and the Rook continues to shave the rectangle file by file without also taking away diagonals from the lone King (like an over-powerful Queen) which allowed the stalemate pattern of the last game in this video. I love your videos. You are helping me make SO much sense of The London, The Jobava London, and the Caro-Kann especially. I feel more confident playing either Black or White, and more confident that my ELO both can and will improve in general. Thank you.
you sound just like my romanian friend. Maybe i said this before? He placed top 10 in multiple international olympiads… in the same year. Yes it’s a complement, and also a commentary on how similar the accents are!
Yeah so im 1400 rapid and my win rate with white is 50%. Thanks to your instructions my win rate with black is 66%. I'm planning on purchasing the caro course after I'm done with the e4 for white course. Feel like i should focus more on white right now haha
Whoops ..... he stalemated you, what a hero!! Too funny. Great video, thanks! I play the Caro-Kann too, so it's really helpful. But seriously, his strategy to stall the game paid off. Let's say you're playing a 15 minutes game and your opponent still has 12 minutes on the clock. He/she can make a move until there's only a few seconds left. Some players can't stand to have to wait that long and will leave or even resign. Others will blunder out of boredom ....
Thanks to Alexandrü, the Caro is the opening I know the best. Recently I suffered some losses with the avance variation, when white attacked me with pawns on the king size, Tal style. Then, I made some blunders on some exchange variations, and thought : OK, I am playing moves automaticaly because I play to much Caro. Now, after some time, coming back to watch this video, I feel energized again. The advance variation (game 6 in particular) games were very good material for me. Thank you very much. PS : by the way, on move 4 ( game 6 ), stockfish 14+ advises 4... cd4. Any reason to play 4... Nc6 instead ? I am wondering as I check the analysis.
Very instructive. Its just so funny when you start talking about "risky, shouldnt have done that, loq at dis position, iz so bad" and stockfish is like: "are you high? Its a dead draw" 😂but yeah ik, 1400 elo, not stockfish.
Should i quit winning occasionally and losing more often with my Scandinavian def? I like pretending im white when i am black but the results aren't so great... Is the caro better for a beginner than the Scandinavian is what im trying to ask.
@@AlexBanzea hey i will take your advice seriously. I learned the jobova London from you and im doing much better now. You have never given me bad advice. Thanks for your content. It really is helping people
Hi all of Alex fans. To those of you who have been following his course on London. ….Do you think that is good to pay for his London course without video or only with it? ( full course)Not sure which one to buy …btw great stuff as always!
In game 2 when you paused to ask for the next move, i saw Ba5 attacking the queen and rook. I am also 500 rated and make terrible moves constantly haha.
As usual, I am loving your videos, however I am facing more people playing different variations to the Caro-Kann, and was wondering if you had faced these variations before, because I feel that with the 4 variations I see some play in a totally different way. below is a link to some I face and first few moves (I know I am insignificant, but it is just an option to teach perhaps, or not at all), but thought I would share first 7 moves of my recent black games: 1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. d3 Bg4 4. Be2 e6 5. h3 Bxf3 6. Bxf3 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 - Game 1 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 c6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6. Nf3 c5 $2 7. c3 $6 Nc6 Game 2 1. b3 c6 2. Bb2 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 c5 5. h4 $6 d4 6. a4 Nc6 7. d3 e5 Game 3 Edit: just watched on and you recommend the Carp-Kann rating climb to see more, I think I have already watched some, so will revisit those :). Will leave this here in case it is ideas for you :)
11:30 question-- why only set up the battery in the tarktakower? Like why is it better than other pawn structures? Also, in the caro, is the idea generally always to go for a kingside attack?
Been watching you to try and get better at the Caro but I just suck at it lol. At around 1000 and WR on white is like 59% but black all the way down at 48%
Amazing how in every moronic chess chat room (which I REALLY enjoyed during the WCC, I mean the Ding chilling meme just never gets old, right?/s) everybody seems to be in the top fifth percentile of players isn’t it?
I was suppose to attend my other studies after doing chess for 4 hours, and then i see a new Alex Banzea video, i guess there is always time to do the other studies later... Or something.. Lol.
You can now...check out my Caro course! www.chessable.com/the-caro-kann-simplified/course/171080/
I got your ck course. It's great😊
If it is as good as your London Course it will be an essential buy.
Started playing 10 months ago. After 6 months I was hovering around 500 with no signs of further improvement. After watching your videos I've gone past 800 in blitz and rapid. My win rate with black is much higher than my white. The Caro Khan is so solid. Feel like 1000+ in rapid is really achievable. Thanks for all the great content, its been invaluable
Yeah Alex is wonderful, when I first started I was at 800 and started watching him (Caro - if Caro doesn't happen just I just play by intuition and try to get back into structures similar to the Caro lmao and if I get white I play the Jobava london) and now I'm 1200 after 1 month. Do more puzzles on lichess, and keep watching his videos and you'll be gucci. Keep up the great work you'll break through 1000 in no time
@@POWERUPEthat jobava London is like a cheat code. I learned the basics yesterday and i jumped from 340 to 504 without any trouble. I'd say it took two or three hours. I'm still a noob but i had no idea how to win or even attack with white until i watched alex videos. my goal is 1400.
thanks, I'm already GM just by reading the title
Lol, i wish it was that easy. 😁😫
Consider this: is your name one syllable or two?
@@Kyle-ys3cv Kyle gang
Alex should add ( as an international master) in all video titles
Pretty cute comment..Alex will whip the snot out of you.
That last game made me laugh so hard. Thanks for a great series Alex!
it "drew" a laugh from me too
@@petercofrancesco9812 this thread is a bit stale now
I just played a game exactly the same position as this last game and got a stalemate in the same position, with only King left. Inspirational stuff!! I would normally have resigned, always learning!
I wish I could share a screenshot!
your caro and london series is simply the absolute best and most informative series on youtube imo. and I've watched a looot of different creators on these two openings
This is the cleanest and simplest guide to the Caro -Kann that I've see on RUclips. Even better than your previous Caro-Kann vids. Thank-you!
I really love this style of videos. You're teaching an opening by demonstrating how to use it and what ideas are available in it, instead of just showing the moves. That's high quality content!
I have been beta-testing Alex's course and can say without reservation that when it becomes available it will definitely be something to grab and spend a LOT of time working through.
That's great George but, the real test is whether it will make me better😂
I can't wait to get it tbh
Alex you have no clue how much you are helping me out. Currently now 1500 elo playing viena and caro. Much love ❤
06:13 In case White takes the knight, we will take back with the pawn (opening up rook's path towards White's king) which is leading to checkmate because the b6-bishop covers the g1-square. Should have showed that on the board, sorry for the confusion!
But then White can go f3-knight to h2 to block, no? I think you will still find mate quickly.. Queen to h4 maybe ?
@@gutyourtrust how about ROOK sacrifice
I just had one of the best Caro-Kann games of my life.
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. c3 Ngf6 6. Qe2 e6 7. Bg5 Be7 8.
Bxf6 Nxf6 9. Qf3 O-O 10. Bc4 b6 11. Ne2 Bb7 12. Nxf6+ Bxf6 13. O-O Qc7 14. Nf4
c5 15. Qe3 cxd4 16. cxd4 Qxc4 17. b3 Qxd4 18. Qxd4 Bxd4 19. Rfd1 Bxa1 20. Rxa1
Rac8 21. Rd1 Rc7 22. Ne2 Rc5 23. b4 Rg5 24. g3 Bf3 25. h4 Re5 26. Rd7 Rxe2 27.
Rxa7 h6 28. Kf1 Rd8 0-1
Thanks Alex! Breaking down the moves and why you do them really helps out. Good stuff man! 👊
love the Caro overdose! Great lines, well explained!
I got a tournament soon and ur London and Caro kann vids have helped me soo much I cant thank you enough. Wish u all the best with ur channel and ur chess career
That ending was epic! 😂
Loving the London course, and looking forward to picking up the caro kann when it drops. Do you ever play the HA Dragon? My chess teacher gave me it as an opening to learn, and it seems like a pretty fun position to play, it would be awesome to hear your take on it/see you play it in a video in the future
Caro vs the ha dragon top black openings
Great job! Excellent content! Thank you for being so thorough. I appreciate your calm demeanor
When is the chessable course coming out?? I’m over here checking every day! Lol
I think the most challenging variation against the caro kann especially in those levels is the panov attack. I myself have trouble many times against the panov. Great video as usually 😊
Me a 1400
Opponents: 15 moves of theory
Alex opponents: Bishop to J19
All that and a bag of Skittles. Another high value instructional video from Alex. 🙏
I love the Caro videos! I’d love to see more videos of you playing white maybe like a Queens or Vienna gambit.
KEEP THESE VIDEOS COMING! PLEASE AND TY! BEST CHESS CHANNEL!
Thanks Alex, this is a very good learning video.
beautiful checkmate game 1! amazing, been playing the caro because of your videos! ole Alex!
Love the simplicity in your videoes. Im just wondering. Would you consider sharing pgn txt or alternatively linking the games in your video dedcription? (Going forward... not asking you to renovate all your videoes xD) It would make it a bit easier to look at the variations in the lines for us.
Not to mention I know at least a handful of other chess-tubers does it.
Thanks for the tutorials bro. At first I thought you were annoying hhhhh, but now I love your videos and have so much respect for your style of play and being funny at the same time. I love it!
Can't wait for the course. Something that you do well is explain the winning strategies in the middle and end games once we've gone out of the opening. Other courses don't really cover that well. And even though the london is an opening I don't play, your course on the london really explained all those important pawn ideas in great detail. Can't wait to see what you add for your caro course.
That said, what do you suggest we play vs D4 or other stuff?
Super instructive and fun. Thanks for your content!
Alex, thanx for one more very educational Caro video. When we will be able to buy Caro course on Chessable?
you are so enjoyable to listen and learn from, your humor is just great
Every time he says, “I think we can move on to the….”, I fear he’ll say something like, “end of the video”, but, every single time, without fail, it’s, “following game.” It’s amazing.
Great Video! When can we expect your Caro course to be out?
"Are you going to touch the bag of skittles? of course not'
me: (spits the mouthfull of skittles out)
Nice you have another follower, your Karu is very good. keep posting.
Had a game against 1500 with exact same position as on 12:58 when Alex encourages us to come up with a plan! I wish I saw this video earlier
17:41 The upcoming sequence was so smooth sir
My brother is a real estate agent in Portugal, but he is a pretty good one in case you are interested 😆 Great video as usual, got love the Caro. Looking forward to the course!
We are on May, already. So when the Caro-Kann course will be released ?
I am dying to study it.
Thanks Alex for these amazing games, really helpful! The ending was hilarious lol😂
the introduction was so unexpectedly i laughet my ass off :D "i am only 23" :D
Nice Vid, thx for explaining. I really improved my Chess game with this Tipps :)
Thanks for the great instructions
I started playing this and it works!
Thanks Alex for all your content. I now play the Caro-Kann and the London because of you(Thanks to your unbelievable course on chessable) When your caro-Kann course will be avalaible?
We all knew what was going to happen in the final game, but it was worth sticking around to see it!
I love the Caro Kann because it's just so easy to play. No stress for the first 10 moves. I play the Botvinnik-Carls every chance I get because of it's similarity to black in d4 openings including the London. Did you know white can transport the Caro into the London?
The ending lol😂
Love watching your videos❤
@AlexBanzea "You deserve the wooden spoon." 😉 The easiest way to pre-move ladder mate: 1) Never make a second Queen against a lone King. Underpromote to a Rook. 2) Place the Rook in the corner of the rectangle the Queen has the lone King cornered in. (The square diagonally adjacent to the Queen.) and 3) Alternate the Queen and Rook as you did the two Queens. The simple difference: The over-powerful Queen remains shielded by the Rook while protecting it, and the Rook continues to shave the rectangle file by file without also taking away diagonals from the lone King (like an over-powerful Queen) which allowed the stalemate pattern of the last game in this video.
I love your videos. You are helping me make SO much sense of The London, The Jobava London, and the Caro-Kann especially. I feel more confident playing either Black or White, and more confident that my ELO both can and will improve in general. Thank you.
Love your content, you bring plenty of humor to your vids.
Hi Alex, thank you for the excellent videos. It would be great if you could show us an opening for black when white starts with D4. Many thanks
Check his play lists for the Slav and reversed London.
I wanted to say the video length is very good. 1 hour, a bit more a bit less, is perfect in my opinion. Please don't go for shorter videos.
When does the Caro course come out, we need it!
That ending 👌🏻😅
you sound just like my romanian friend. Maybe i said this before? He placed top 10 in multiple international olympiads… in the same year. Yes it’s a complement, and also a commentary on how similar the accents are!
Yeah so im 1400 rapid and my win rate with white is 50%. Thanks to your instructions my win rate with black is 66%. I'm planning on purchasing the caro course after I'm done with the e4 for white course. Feel like i should focus more on white right now haha
Whoops ..... he stalemated you, what a hero!! Too funny. Great video, thanks! I play the Caro-Kann too, so it's really helpful. But seriously, his strategy to stall the game paid off. Let's say you're playing a 15 minutes game and your opponent still has 12 minutes on the clock. He/she can make a move until there's only a few seconds left. Some players can't stand to have to wait that long and will leave or even resign. Others will blunder out of boredom ....
Thanks for the video Alex, After watching this I soloed 95% of Chess worldwide
Thanks to Alexandrü, the Caro is the opening I know the best. Recently I suffered some losses with the avance variation, when white attacked me with pawns on the king size, Tal style.
Then, I made some blunders on some exchange variations, and thought : OK, I am playing moves automaticaly because I play to much Caro.
Now, after some time, coming back to watch this video, I feel energized again. The advance variation (game 6 in particular) games were very good material for me.
Thank you very much.
PS : by the way, on move 4 ( game 6 ), stockfish 14+ advises 4... cd4. Any reason to play 4... Nc6 instead ? I am wondering as I check the analysis.
2:30 why didn't you play bf4 ? We should play bf4 after e4 in advance variation right?
Very instructive. Its just so funny when you start talking about "risky, shouldnt have done that, loq at dis position, iz so bad" and stockfish is like: "are you high? Its a dead draw" 😂but yeah ik, 1400 elo, not stockfish.
Should i quit winning occasionally and losing more often with my Scandinavian def? I like pretending im white when i am black but the results aren't so great... Is the caro better for a beginner than the Scandinavian is what im trying to ask.
Go Caro!
@@AlexBanzea hey i will take your advice seriously. I learned the jobova London from you and im doing much better now. You have never given me bad advice. Thanks for your content. It really is helping people
Best part of his videos are his analogies
When is the Caro Kann course coming out on Chessable?
Super video sir😊, sir i request make one video on hippopotamus opening sir
“We say no to endgames. Remember Tartakower: f!?# endgames. We don’t do that here.”
Good job Alex...but i wish you have done repertoire for black opening against D4 from white too..pls consider that. Tq
56:59? Question. What happen if he plays rook C1. I don't get it? Someone can help please? Alex?
I think i heard Eric Rosen squeal in excitement at the end of the final game.
Very good RUclips channel. Thank you
i wonder if i ever thought i was doing good but i was actually a part of a stream teaching how to crush scrubs like me :)
Building opening repitoir for black…
If E4, caro Kann.
If D4. Maybe reverse London?
If C4, ???
Ideas?
1.c4 c6 then reversed london
Love this guy
Man fixed his hair going into game 2. He's getting serious
Hi all of Alex fans. To those of you who have been following his course on London. ….Do you think that is good to pay for his London course without video or only with it? ( full course)Not sure which one to buy …btw great stuff as always!
You don't need the video! (disclaimer: you might end up buying the video because the course is just too good) Play safe.
When opponent played fantasy I was sure you would immediately play Qb6 but you played e5. Maybe Qb6 leads to a queen trade which is better avoided?
Alex which opening do you play against d4 can you make a video about that?🖤
As a 1000 I play the Englund gambit. It still works, although I have heard it is in theory flawed. A lot of people dont know how to respond though
In game 2 when you paused to ask for the next move, i saw Ba5 attacking the queen and rook. I am also 500 rated and make terrible moves constantly haha.
can you put back the increment ? that was more instructive in the endgame
Amazing episode 👏
As usual, I am loving your videos, however I am facing more people playing different variations to the Caro-Kann, and was wondering if you had faced these variations before, because I feel that with the 4 variations I see some play in a totally different way. below is a link to some I face and first few moves (I know I am insignificant, but it is just an option to teach perhaps, or not at all), but thought I would share first 7 moves of my recent black games:
1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. d3 Bg4 4. Be2 e6 5. h3 Bxf3 6. Bxf3 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 - Game 1
1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 c6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 e6 5. Bxf5 exf5 6. Nf3 c5 $2 7. c3 $6 Nc6 Game 2
1. b3 c6 2. Bb2 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 c5 5. h4 $6 d4 6. a4 Nc6 7. d3 e5 Game 3
Edit: just watched on and you recommend the Carp-Kann rating climb to see more, I think I have already watched some, so will revisit those :). Will leave this here in case it is ideas for you :)
11:30 question-- why only set up the battery in the tarktakower? Like why is it better than other pawn structures?
Also, in the caro, is the idea generally always to go for a kingside attack?
Mostly queenside play. Only in the Tartakower we go for the king!
thank you so much your lessons they have helped me finally to break over 1000 rating im at 1069 and still climbing again thank you very much
Alex how can I get a wooden spoon?
Been watching you to try and get better at the Caro but I just suck at it lol. At around 1000 and WR on white is like 59% but black all the way down at 48%
Thanks again Alex!
Nice! So do you run caro-kann against Queens pawn D4 as well?
Do you? Or do you go for something else? Thanks
I can watch these caro kann videos all day everyday 👍
"Tartakower, fuck endgames." Sounds like it would be good on a t-shirt
Yo Alex can you cover a repertoire for d4 for black
Fantastic video!!! 😇
Amazing how in every moronic chess chat room (which I REALLY enjoyed during the WCC, I mean the Ding chilling meme just never gets old, right?/s) everybody seems to be in the top fifth percentile of players isn’t it?
Thanks!
Chessable C-K course ETA?
Alex why dont you play with the increment anymore?
The end of the last game! 😂😂😂😂
HAHA I thought he was gonna say im 23 and NOT a virgin....
I was suppose to attend my other studies after doing chess for 4 hours, and then i see a new Alex Banzea video, i guess there is always time to do the other studies later... Or something.. Lol.
Hi is your caro already on chessable?
I want to thank you Alex for explaining the bad exchange variations. i felt that it helped me a lot to punish them better. Very instructive.
Why not BA5 at 13:30? Win the exchange?