Shadowing Practice: How to CRUSH with the Caro-Kann! - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another chess opening video.
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This one is on my favorite, the Karo Khan defense.
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It's a very easy opening to learn to play with the black pieces.
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It's against E4, the King's Pond, which I will show you.
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And it's an opening that actually holds a dear place in my heart
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because when I quit chess between the ages of 12 and 15, the thing that brought me back was a book by Lars Skandorf called Grandmaster Repertoire 7,
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the Karo Khan and my first win over a master player rated 2200 was in the Karo Kahn.
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So this video is split into this portion, which is the theory.
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It's going to be about 15 minutes.
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All the moves are in the description for you to play around with.
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And then I have two training games against my subscribers and I have a Karo Kahn course on my website.
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Link is in the description.
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E4, C6.
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If you want something besides E4, got to go to a different video.
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Here we are learning E4, C6.
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This is the Karo Kahn defense.
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This is not the Karo Kahn defense.
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It's not just that you go here, e4, c6, and standard play looks like this.
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You build for the center with your c -pawn because if they take you, you want to take back like this in the center of the board.
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So first, we're going to look at the very standard two pawns in the center approach.
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Then we are going to take a look at everything besides that, and then, you know, the other nonsense.
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So d4, d5.
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At this point, the way I want you to think about this is what does white do to the pawn in the middle?
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Do they take, push, or protect it?
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We're going to begin with pushing because this is what's played the most because people don't want to take.
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They see that they can push and advance like this and you can't play this traditional move, knight to f6.
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So against this pawn wedge, theory says that bishop to f5 is the most successful move
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and the most common to develop the bishop outside of the pawn chain
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and then play e6 like this and then attack the center with c5.
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Now this variation is great but in my opinion I think the more advanced folks should explore this.
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I think that there is a far simpler approach for intermediate and beginner players and I'm going to show it to you.
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It's my main recommendation in my course, and I recommend it for a reason.
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The reason I don't like this is because if you wait too long, you will be subjected to a bit of a space disadvantage.
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And if you don't know how to handle these positions, you'll get suffocated.
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So I recommend that against the advanced variation, you fight with this move right away.
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And the whole point is you're trying to actually get them to take you.
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Why?
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Because then you're going to develop up your knight to c6.
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So the c pawn moves a second time to dislodge the wedge in the center.
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You bring the knight out and the second this knight gets to f3 to defend this pawn, you throw the bishop out there to pin it.
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Sometimes the bishop will go to f5, but most times you're going to wait for this move and then play this.
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This is how I like to play this position with black.
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And let me just show you what this can look like
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you will slowly maximize the pressure on these two pawns
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and then try to take both of them
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so your next move once you get the bishop out of
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this area is going to be to play something like e6
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because now your bishop is not locked in anymore okay then you're going to take this pawn back
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if it gets defended your knight loves to go to f5 it cannot go to f6
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so it likes to go to e7, and then after something like this to f5.
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Now, if you're confused what's going on with this bishop, if this bishop ever gets attacked, that's a waste of time because you're going to take, and then this has no defense anymore.
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You just wait a little bit.
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The most tricky thing in this opening is when to take that e5 pawn, because I don't want you to weaken your king so much.
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There can be like worst case scenarios where you accidentally, let me just show you just a really funny example, leave this whole diagonal open and get hit with this
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and lose because now you have to block with the queen and that's bye -bye.
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So that can happen.
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You need to stay patient with c5 and when they take you, right?
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Stay patient, jump the knight out, get this bishop to pin.
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Now, if they play something like bishop to f4, you might need to go back to plan B of bishop f5 and e6, because if you block in your bishop, that will just be a little bit tragic,
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although it's actually not that bad.
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Believe it or not, in this position, you actually can play this move.
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Your bishop will just need to deal with problems later.
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Now, I only looked at captures, by the way.
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If they go here, same game plan.
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That's the beauty.
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Same game plan.
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Knight c6, you wait for the knight you pin it
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and then at some point you're ready all right see knight e7
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or you can take take take take and you go for that pawn
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After you take the knight and you take the pawn, this knight pressures the center.
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You need to go move by move, obviously, whether they've taken you or not, whether they've defended their pawn in the center.
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But this move, c5, in my opinion, forces the issue so quickly and really fights on the pawn structure,
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makes white really, really have to defend these pawns, which intermediate players are not very good at.
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They're not very good at making controlling opening moves.
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They're going to lose both pawns.
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You're going to have a lot of games you win both those pawns just be careful of
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that diagonal check and try to follow those rules.
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Obviously, there is more in -depth theory here.
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I don't go into that in excruciating detail because I want to show you a brief 15 -minute summary.
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You, the more advanced players, can go take a look at opening databases, use the engine, not during the games.
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Anyway, that's a little bit about the advanced variation.
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Other variation, exchange variation.
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Exchange variation can happen after d4 or whenever.
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Like, This is also the exchange variation.
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The point is they play E takes D5.
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They take your pawn.
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Great.
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You take back.
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Let me just, well, we can look at it with both pawns in the center.
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You have multiple game plans here.
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The simplest game plan by far, get your knights out and actually move them first because you know they're going to go there.
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Knight, knight, easy.
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And then move the bishop out before you block it in with your E pawn
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and then move your dark squared bishop super simple game plan
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knight f3 knight c6 knight f6 bishop oh sorry two moves
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in a row by by me by accident e6 bishop d6
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super simple however you have multiple approaches um the exchange variation for white
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when they take on d5 is only considered according to theory the exchange variation
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when they put the bishop to d3 there is a little sub variation here
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when they actually attack your pawn with this pawn
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because they're actually trying to you know dislodge you this is
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known as the pan off it's not known as the exchange
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although they have taken your pawn they have exchanged your pawn there is this pan off variation
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and by the way you can employ much of the similar game plan here
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but because this is very demanding on your center what you can do is actually develop
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and defend it first and because you don't want to help white develop you don't need to help white develop here.
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You want to try to solidify your center as much as possible.
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So you're always taking with a pawn.
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You control in the center with a pawn.
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But there's actually alternatives.
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One of my favorite things to do in the exchange variation
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and in the pan -off is to actually fee and kettle my bishop to g7.
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There's actually some variations where white gets to take this pawn for free.
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But because you get such quick development, again, just like in the advanced variation, these pawns kind of suck.
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They don't do anything.
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And besides the fact that we're playing a main line that grandmasters play, which you're probably not going to get all the time, these pawns can be won very quickly.
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You can use flank pawn pushes to deflect your opponent's queen and knight.
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But more than anything else, what I want you to think about here is you have options.
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You can play this in a fianchetto style like this, the exchange variation, and then develop your pieces accordingly.
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And your pressure on the queen side might pay off in the future by taking and then having an isolated pawn.
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But remember, this is the pan -off.
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The exchange variation does not have c4.
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So you can get a very similar looking position and here either develop standard or, as Gotham said, fianchetto, right?
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You have two options here.
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But then there's even some more, but this is the very easy thing to do when they exchange your pawn.
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And the last thing that you need to worry about in the Karo Khan defense is what if they leave this here?
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Now, if they leave it here and it's free, like this, I don't know.
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Take it, develop your pieces, don't block in your bishop, play normal chess.
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There are two ways that they can defend this normally.
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Number one is with this knight.
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Number two is the fantasy variation with the f -pawn.
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The fantasy variation scores very well against the Karo Khan.
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The knight, d2 or knight c3, doesn't really matter.
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You're going to take.
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I do not recommend taking against the fantasy
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because this will allow white to have a big fat centered
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so there's no need to allow white to get everything they
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want you should be confrontational you shouldn't you know you shouldn't be a pushover in this case it doesn't matter
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that the knight is here because it's not really scaring anybody
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so you both have lost the center pawn there are two
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approaches as far as i'm concerned in the classical variation
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when they defend the pawn with the knight it's known as the classical uh in this position knight f6
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or bishop to f5 immediately challenging that knight makes sense.
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There is also something known as the Karpov variation, which intends to attack the knight with the knight, but defend with the knight as well.
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So essentially what this looks like is you want to do this.
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Whereas if you just attack with a knight right away, you need to double your pawns.
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I actually think this variation immediately attacking with the knight is super simple to play.
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And what I'm about to show you, I guarantee will happen in one of your games.
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Of course, if they don't take you, you have to develop normally.
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There's really not too much we can do here.
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You're going to have to develop bishop, knight, maybe here.
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Utilize an E or C pawn break to open your position in the future.
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Develop, develop, castle.
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But if they take you, I like to take with the E pawn.
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And now the game plan is very simple.
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Bishop out, castle.
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Okay, so bishop out.
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Now in this position, maybe don't castle because you'll hang mate like Magnus Carlson did in a bullet game.
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But obviously, if they do that, you'll attack their queen and then castle.
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But after you get this, these pieces will move as follows.
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Slide the rook over to fight for the e -file, okay?
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The knight slides where the rook was.
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You actually transfer the knight over to the king side, and you're very solid.
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Plus, when the knight is on f8, it will constantly defend h7 from where you will never be checkmated.
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And then I have had students get games that look like this.
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So let's say you develop your bishops, right?
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Let's say something like this.
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And white just plays this very lazy move.
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You can set up a bishop queen cannon to h3 and actually sacrifice.
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I've had students win games like this over the years, you know, because they get their queen here now with this bishop.
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Oh, hello, hello, hello.
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The knight's under attack.
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Say something like bishop 2e2 and now the killer move because you've put this rook here, slide it forward.
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The king is completely cut off by the queen and rook g4 is made.
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I guarantee you, I guarantee you, you're going to win a game like this.
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Guarantee you.
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I don't know if it's going to take 10 games or 100.
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You will win a game like this in the future because people don't know what to do.
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That's the thing.
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You have a game plan.
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If they don't play h3, okay, trade a piece or two, right?
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Try to expand on the queen side and take some space.
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Your doubled pawns are actually not that bad because they repel the enemy knight.
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And the Tardar Coward truthfully is a little bit of a difficult one to play.
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It's also not super common.
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But you're going to have to deal with it every now and then.
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Your alternative is to play the classical variation with bishop to f5.
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After bishop to f5, there is some theory.
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You need to get your bishop out of the way.
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If the opponent does this, you need to not get your bishop trapped.
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This is all in the description, by the way.
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And theory looks like this.
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It's a super theory radical position.
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But the thing is, if you're about 1700 or below, no one knows what they're doing.
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And like 95 % of my audience is there.
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I checked.
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So the truth is, if you want to learn the theory of the Karakan, you got to probably buy a course or study some three -hour video, which might be somewhere in the deep dark alley of YouTube chess.
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I don't know.
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But if you just want a very easy variation to play against the classical, I think the Tarsak Hour is a good way to go.
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We haven't looked at the fantasy.
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The fantasy, in my opinion, I think you should play it like this.
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I think g6 is a very practical weapon against the fantasy, and you just don't let them bully you.
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So you'll play bishop to g7, and if the bishop develops early, you will slide your queen out to b6 and actually just go for b2.
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There is a tricky line here with queen d2, but you're completely safe.
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You can take an escape, not a problem, and the second white does something with this pawn, you immediately pounce.
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So for example, you can actually develop.
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You don't even need to take back because you already won a pawn, right?
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This is all in the description for you.
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This is actually all kind of cutting edge theory.
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It's been played many times.
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And if white shoves this pawn forward, well, that's fantastic.
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We can attack it with f6, a move like f6, get our knight out.
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And if they defend it, and you can even slide the knight out to f5.
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You have experience moving the knight to f5 because you've done it in the advanced variation.
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The fantasy is tricky.
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It's probably the trickiest.
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It scores the best at intermediate level against the Karo Kahn.
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But by the way, there's also like very tricky lines like e5, which can be very aggressive.
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The point of e5 is that if they take, Bishop and Queen can swarm this diagonal.
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Very tricky line, not the best by theory, but you can play like this.
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And this is pretty terrifying for white.
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For example, game can end with knight e2.
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Check here, mate.
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Congratulations, you've won a game in seven moves.
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I don't know how much better of an opening video I can give you.
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So the fantasy is tricky, but if you find a way to attack them
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and create an attack on their king because they weaken it a little bit early with this F pawn push, be my guest.
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Beyond that, there's a few other variations that are not super popular.
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There is the two knights.
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If you want to play the two knights like you play a Tartikower, you would take and do this.
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Pretty simple.
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That kind of overlaps, right? you can also pin the knight
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and then very simply like
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if they attack you you trade it just like in the advance
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and regroup on the light squares i really like to do
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it like this light square regrouping a little bit passive but very solid You can even do this.
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And now you have seven pawns on light squares.
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And now you've unlocked like a hidden gem.
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You have all eight pawns on light squares because you traded your light squared bishop.
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Two Knights Karokhan, not super popular.
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You can always just, like I said, play the Tartic Hour.
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But it's seen a decent amount at the high levels.
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And everything else is a major sideline.
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For example, you might experience this in the wild.
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Okay, go review with an opening database.
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Go review with, you know, some sort of engine after the game is done and try to play reasonable, logical chess, and don't just go completely insane.
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I can't give you every single iteration of White's first two or three moves, but I'm doing my best.
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And now, let's try to play a couple of games.
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The first person who we're going to play against is, I believe, 1 ,200.
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And I believe they are not online.
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So let me quickly ping them.
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I would edit this out, but it's fine.
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I can kind of keep you entertained.
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Ooga booga.
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Look, I'm making noises.
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Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
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I don't really want to edit this out, so let's see if we can get a game.
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Okay, fantastic.
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There it is.
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1100. Thought they were 1200.
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Overshawn it by a little bit.
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I think this individual plays the advanced Karakon, so C6.
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There it is. And D5. And E5.
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I was right.
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let's do this let's do this i'm going to play my i'm going to play the variation i recommended
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and that's in my course and see how it goes practically
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so the critical line is dc5 all gms play dc5 because it's an attempt to refute black's opening
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then black has a couple of methods to equalize uh
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and try to do their best uh anyone below the level
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of like 2400 I'm not even kidding doesn't know the theory
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correctly I'm not joking I have played a few 21 2200s in my life
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that kind of know the theory up to like move seven
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or eight that's it but it's actually pretty unexplored territory at the high level
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so even c5 is still being discovered my water's gone okay okay this is actually very good
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that we're analyzing this c4 is a very aggressive move and it actually leads to some pretty fascinating variations
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If we try to develop just in the standard way, what's going to happen here is they're going to take and force our queen into the middle.
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So believe it or not, this is actually very tricky.
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If you take on c4, d5 gets shoved forward.
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Be happy you watched all the way until now.
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So the best move here, according to theory, is this move c takes d4.
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You actually have to fight immediately in the center.
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If the opponent defended, you can wait.
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But because they have a bit of a lead in development, because they do go first, you got to be like, you got to be super accurate.
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So we take on d4 because they're not able to restructure the center with a pawn.
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Their center is going to be very weak.
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This is going to be very delicate right now.
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In fact, after knight d4, I think we can even just take this. But maybe not.
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Maybe we'll just take on c4 then because they can't shove the pawn forward.
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cd5 is the best move.
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So actually taking the corresponding pawn, but it's the best move for one reason in particular, which my opponent might not know, because I'm going to have to move my queen out
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and then the knight can come here that's very tough to see
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if you've never seen this before so see okay well yeah
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that obviously is a is an inaccuracy
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because they've just lost the pawn i could take
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but again i have taught you about this move
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so i'm going to play this move now um
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if they play h3 i might take and then regroup i'm yeah actually that looks pretty good.
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Here's a really good example of the fact that it actually looks like we can make this trade right now.
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And we just have to make sure that our king is completely safe.
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It looks like it.
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In fact, I want to take, take, and then take this.
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Yeah, I kind of like that.
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But I'm going to also show you the dangers associated with trying to cash in on these pawns too quickly.
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Okay?
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So look, I'm cashing in, right?
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There's no check.
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I'm pretty safe.
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I hope this doesn't happen because they're going to hang this bishop.
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So like queen e2 is a good move.
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Queen d1 is a good move.
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At which point I'm probably...
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Yeah, so I'm trying to think.
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I could take the bishop and then take or I could just take on c4.
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Yeah, I guess I'll just take on c4.
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And by the way, we are up three pawns on move nine.
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I understand there's a bit of a rating imbalance here, but these are the kinds of positions that you can also get if you know your stuff.
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See, our opponent played c4, not actually a move that we covered.
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but we know what to do against it.
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You see how this check is not so scary?
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Because we can trade queens.
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If that was a bishop, that would be terrifying.
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But because it's a queen, we're fine.
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And we're totally okay with a queen trade because we have three extra pawns. So, right?
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So c4s, I don't even think I looked at c4.
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It's actually a very rare move.
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So credit to my opponent for playing it.
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That's...
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Thank you.
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Hanging, I can get my knight in the way, I can slide my king over, I can move my rook.
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I can also give the pawn away and just try to get developed as quickly as possible.
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This is what I meant.
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So I'm going to play a move that I think around this level would occur.
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Even though it's probably not the best move, I've got to find the move I want to play
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so king c7 runs into this you see this is actually the danger of grabbing these pawns
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so early is that you you fall behind in development
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so king c7 runs into that king c it's just a little bit passive
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and ugly my rook gets blocked in rook b8 also runs into this pin
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which i understand that oh my god it took me like 10 attempts to draw
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that uh which i understand i can defend
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but just looks a little bit unpleasant
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so the best move here for sure is probably just giving up this b7 on just
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and then just trying to like get some quick development uh
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i'm gonna play this it's not a good move at all
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and after bishop f4 knight a3
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and putting both rooks on d1 c1 my opponent will have
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a big advantage like in development not according to the computer
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but in development and actually it's okay we'll very quickly analyze afterward with the engine
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which is why i always recommend
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that before you go cashing in like at the arcade you
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actually finish your development you you you get everybody settled uh this is under attack
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so i'm just gonna push it it's not too complicated yeah
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knight a3 bishop f4 attacks everything in my position these bishops are super strong there it is uh
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if i go knight g6 i gain a little time me i'm gonna attack this bishop back
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so of course i welcome this trade oh my god i would welcome this trade but um Yeah.
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Okay.
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Now we're going to go here.
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See, we're winning time.
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Now we're winning time.
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I lost my train of thought.
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I apologize.
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Sometimes I feel like when I talk, I end sentences halfway through.
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Okay.
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So, again, this is going to be under attack very soon.
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I'm going to go e5 to try to play e4.
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So I'm very close to getting developed.
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I've now blocked out that bishop, but I'm going to lose some pawns here.
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This is not a good move because I can take it.
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I think knight d2 is required.
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And then I can't...
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Oh, see, that's too slow.
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That's what's going to allow me to now quickly develop the rest of my pieces and get back into the game.
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I'll close the center.
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I'm going to take this probably.
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I don't even have to, actually, because it's pinned.
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So I'll go here.
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And now everything is beginning to get defended.
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I'm blocking out the bishops the right way.
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But it was dangerous.
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And that's totally a position that you can lose.
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I guess I'll go here and then take the rook.
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It's totally a position that you can lose.
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now I'm safe now my opponent does not have the firepower does not have the necessary pieces
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and I'm gonna you know I'm gonna get my king to safety
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that bishop was super strong and now
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that we got rid of it we're gonna be able to
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uh we're gonna be able to survive probably the the worst of it okay so let's play a rookie eight
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and we're gonna get the win c4 is an interesting move
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for sure you're not gonna face it a lot i keep
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talking about it you're not gonna face this move a lot
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but now you know how to deal with it
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because it can explode your center it can be very tricky to uh to play
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that position definitely one of those games where the opening works then you lose
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and you go what the hell i thought i watched
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that video i bought the course what's going on well that's
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a good move knight d6 is coming i got to make sure that's not a check
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so now if knight d6 comes i just take the rook
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but it's never too late to lose a game of chess you
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and you know it and i know it okay now we're going to trade rooks
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and the good thing is
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that right after we trade the rook this bishop is stuck with our knight
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and our pawn f4 comes in we're going to trap
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that and we're going to we're going to get This is stuck,
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that's stuck, and we get the win.
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But obviously, at this point, we're kind of in the middle game, end game territory.
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Like, this could have come from any opening.
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We didn't get this position because of the Karo Khan, but it definitely helped.
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So let's go here.
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And a couple of ways to win this.
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Easiest, Simplify.
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Now we have knights and pawns, and opponent resigns.
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That was a nice game.
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So let's just quickly analyze.
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C4.
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C takes D4 and here, if knight d4, this is already a bit dangerous for black.
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So I'm just trying to draw your attention to this diagonal over and over again.
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If you play this wrong, you can just get straight up a losing position.
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Like, bishop b5, this could be terrifying for black.
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You have to be very, very certain that you have to, you know, you've got to defend your center, and sometimes you will need to block in this bishop.
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You'll see it, the engine will point it out.
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More often than not, you're going to try to pin.
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But here, if we did this, like I said, we would have run into just a bad position after knight c3.
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And after c4 and this, yeah, the engine likes this, but it's not it's not super clean uh
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and right here yeah king c8 is now almost white is just completely back in the game
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so for example bishop f4 you know it even like something
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like this how quickly things can go wrong you know
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if you're not careful and then this comes and then you don't
427
if you'd like go knight a3 comes it's everything falls apart
428
and all of a sudden you're just getting blasted by all the pieces
429
so now you know how to play that position uh
430
and for the last game i am going to take on
431
a slightly stronger player like 15 1600 i think he's ready
432
here we go yeah trees eric is a resident memer on my subreddit
433
and um i told him not to play the same variation okay please exchange variation
434
so which one do we do uh we don't know
435
if they're going to play the pan off yet okay bishop d3 uh we can play this version
436
or g6 bishop g7 i don't know i mean i'm gonna
437
i'm gonna decide after i move my knight i can still decide i can still fianchetto uh
438
and i'll show you maybe how to play the fianchetto
439
because this this one's really easy i'll show you how to
440
play the fianchetto it's a very interesting way to play this position trading your light squared bishop on f5
441
and doubling your pawns and then attacking.
442
So for example, like I'm going to castle and then I'm going to play bishop f5.
443
This is one of my favorite ways to play this variation.
444
Knight e5 is a good move.
445
Although maybe a little premature because this bishop can get hit with this knight to h5.
446
Maybe.
447
Is that a thing?
448
Very common idea when the bishop is out here i did want to show you about this plan
449
but i i kind of like this
450
so now the bishop is hit they have to go knight c6 the thing is
451
if they go like over yeah
452
so there you go now the bishop can move freely my knight my queen was hanging now
453
that we've strengthened this we can use the open b file
454
to create some play bishop f5 is now no longer our plan
455
because after this exchange the knight would hang okay
456
so he's giving me the bishop now i will show you
457
the secret power of the fianchetto bishop on g7 f6 i know ben feingold says not to do it
458
but e5 is about to show up
459
and that's going to be a serious problem in these fianchetto
460
setups in the exchange variation you can always play e5 with a boost of f6
461
and sometimes it just wins you the game
462
because you get a massive center like right now it's bad for white
463
but in maybe three four moves it will it will just be completely lost
464
so let's see if we can get it to that point
465
so we don't need to take we have good restructuring here we play e5 take take e4
466
and we would actually just straight up be winning so
467
if takes takes we go here interesting so i want to push and push again
468
yeah that actually just looks great uh our pawn structure stays completely together f5 f4 is coming
469
and we are overwhelming our opponent here with our pawns
470
so something like this now we will have a weakness absolutely we're gonna have a d5 weakness
471
so take take he can line up a few attacks now dc4 all of a sudden actually is possible
472
because this hangs but we can also just keep marching i really want to keep marching i think
473
that it's a very simple game plan just push the pawn
474
it's very it's very thematic you know our bishop on g7 super super strong uh attacking
475
that pawn on d4
476
but also okay that's going for this we can just take
477
uh it would also be extremely useful to play king h8 to just get out of the way
478
but i really do like f3 i mean f3 just looks
479
so natural here we actually might need to think here for a moment so if we go here
480
take take knight c3 attacks the pawn
481
a move like bishop e6 is decent but we're sort of pinned like our queen is
482
their queen and our bishop are on the same diagonal
483
so we got to be forceful here i mean could just take on d4 obviously uh
484
but uh and then just try to break through if i play f3 take take and there's some bishop e4 trick
485
It is not that simple here.
486
Qb3 was a very good move.
487
I also have Qa5, which attacks a rook and can win me some time, but I'm not really convinced that that's a very good move.
488
Let's play Kh8.
489
We've got to play a move.
490
So that's the move I'm going to play.
491
I'm actually not that happy about it.
492
I think our opponent has just found enough time here to try to consolidate the position with Nc3.
493
It was a variant.
494
What?
495
That was the whole...
496
That's why I played king h8, was to avoid...
497
Okay.
498
Well, that was just a blunder.
499
That's not good.
500
Now I will play f3.
501
Because the options are to take and open up your own king, or play g3 and just box in your position.
502
Um...
503
actually after knight c3 the position was was not over definitely
504
was not over let's go here attack the rook we'll take
505
next move we can take this we can go here but anyway
506
that that's a little bit about the power of the bishop
507
in the exchange variation you always have this f6 e5 stuff
508
uh i guess i'll take i mean it's about time oh
509
bishop h6 by the way wow was there actually just bishop
510
h6 there yeah sometimes there's some weird tactics on bishop h6
511
okay let's act the queen i've been really wanting to play this move because this queen is so awkward
512
so there it is i've done it rook
513
I mean queen queen a3 I said rook a3 queen a3
514
so I have a oh my god I have something so beautiful here wow I have bishop to c2
515
bishop to c2 attacks the rook and opens the rooks and now I have this
516
and now the queen is hanging and the rook that is
517
so nice wow man if you made it 32 minutes into this video
518
that is an incredible tactic the backwards bishop move to attack the queen
519
and the rook still hangs and there's moves like
520
that to give some checks but what that is so
521
and now there's paralysis and yeah wow this was a nice game
522
but i do want to analyze
523
that maybe i got a little bit overconfident pushing my f pawn
524
so much maybe i should have played bishop e6
525
so it's interesting still stuff to learn even at my 2684
526
rating anyway i'll start summarizing the video i appreciate you for making it this far uh
527
and uh hopefully you get um some interesting lessons in the
528
caro con you can obviously always check my course out i said
529
that a few times already and there's other longer videos on youtube
530
and there's many many there's a lot of content on the
531
Karo Khan it wins about 55 to 60 % of games
532
at the intermediate level the Karo Khan the fantasy does very well against it
533
but in like the advance 60 % of the games are won with black
534
so you learn this against the king's pawn you can really
535
put some serious hurting on people it's a great opening
536
and people use it from 800 to 1700 and really have some serious success as my opponent deeply ponders
537
their next piece simply falling unfortunately
538
come on Eric make a move
539
okay I guess we will be swapping some pieces here I
540
guess Eric is going to be playing until checkmate I've already summarized the video so
541
I don't really know what to do next
542
thanks for watching
543
sub to Gotham Chess on youtube all that good stuff
544
and i'll go here and then i'll go here
545
and i guess eric's playing till checkmate
546
which we will promptly deliver via ladder let's rotate over
547
and let's deliver a confident mate on a1 gg to eric uh i already signed everything off so
548
i hope you enjoy the caro con peace out get out of here
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to CRUSH with the Caro-Kann!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bishop, pawn, knight, variation, queen. This video has 548 sentences and 6307 words to shadow. The speech runs for 34:26. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pawn noun | /ˈpɔːn/ | The most numerous chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess, each side starts with eight; moves are only forward, and attacks are only… |
| variation noun | /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/ | The act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing. |
| opponent noun | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something. |
| tricky adjective | /ˈtɹɪk.i/ | Hard to deal with, complicated. |
| fianchetto noun | /fɪənˈt͡ʃɛtəʊ/ | The development of a bishop by moving it one square to a long diagonal; specifically, a set of opening moves where a bishop is developed to the second rank of… |
| chess noun | /t͡ʃɛs/ | A board game for two players, each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the… |
| diagonal adjective | /daɪ̯ˈæɡ(ə)nəl/ | Joining two nonadjacent vertices (of a polygon or polyhedron). |
| analyze verb | /ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/ | To subject to analysis. |
| intermediate adjective | /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/ | Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range. |
| checkmate | /ˈt͡ʃɛkmeɪt/ | Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game. |
| regroup verb | /ɹiːˈɡɹuːp/ | To pause and become organized again. |
| rook noun | /ɹʊk/ | A piece shaped like a castle tower, that can be moved only up, down, left or right (but not diagonally) or in castling. |
| terrify verb | /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪ/ | To frighten greatly; to fill with terror. |
| rat noun | /ɹæt/ | Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than… |
| dislodge verb | /dɪsˈlɒdʒ/ | To remove or force out from a position or dwelling previously occupied. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| take back verb | To retract or withdraw (an earlier statement). | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| break through verb | To gain popularity. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| line up verb | /laɪnˈʌp/ | To align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- There's really not too much we can do here.
- Let's say something like this.
- We haven't looked at the fantasy.
- Congratulations, you've won a game in seven moves.
- You see how this check is not so scary?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you wait too long, you will be · if they do that, you'll attack · if the bishop develops early, you will slide |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | they've taken · have taken · have lost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is split · will be subjected · is not locked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | portion, which is · person who we |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 177 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, shove /ʃʌv/, confrontational /ˌkɒnfɹənˈteɪʃənˈəl/, excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/, iteration /ˌɪt.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: diagonal /daɪ̯ˈæɡ(ə)nəl/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, confrontational /ˌkɒnfɹənˈteɪʃənˈəl/, consolidate /kənˈsɒl.ɪ.deɪt/, excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pawn, variation, opponent.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.