Esta página também existe em português: Português (Brasil)
Caro-Kann Defense (1.e4 c6)
How do Caro-Kann Defense games actually end? Across 93,081 Lichess games that reached the position after 1.e4 c6, White won 45.4%, 5.0% were drawn and Black won 49.6%. Below: the main line move by move, the most played continuations (the favorite is 2.d4), the rating effect and the opening's history.
The main line, move by move
| Move | Position name | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.e4 | King's Pawn Game | 1,601,410 | 49.2% | 4.3% | 46.4% |
| 1...c6 | Caro-Kann Defense | 93,081 | 45.4% | 5.0% | 49.6% |
| 2.d4 | Caro-Kann Defense | 47,240 | 48.1% | 5.1% | 46.8% |
| 2...d5 | Caro-Kann Defense | 42,804 | 47.4% | 5.2% | 47.3% |
| 3.e5 | - | 16,759 | 45.8% | 4.5% | 49.7% |
The 5 most common continuations (for White)
| Move | Variation | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.d4 | - | 47,240 | 48.1% | 5.1% | 46.8% |
| 2.Nf3 | - | 21,434 | 41.8% | 5.2% | 52.9% |
| 2.f4 | - | 5,455 | 44.5% | 4.2% | 51.3% |
| 2.Nc3 | - | 5,388 | 46.7% | 5.4% | 48.0% |
| 2.Bc4 | - | 5,327 | 37.5% | 3.7% | 58.8% |
How rating changes the same position
| Rating band (average of the pair) | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600-1799 | 45,894 | 45.1% | 4.1% | 50.8% |
| 2200-2499 | 2,443 | 46.5% | 8.1% | 45.4% |
The story of the opening
The Caro-Kann carries the names of the two analysts who published it in 1886 in the German magazine Brüderschaft: Horatio Caro, an Englishman living in Berlin, and the Austrian Marcus Kann. The concept fixes the French Defense's flaw: Black again supports d5 with a pawn, but via c6, keeping the light squared bishop's diagonal open before the structure closes.
It became the defense of positional champions. José Raúl Capablanca valued its solidity, and Anatoly Karpov turned it into a fortress across his World Championship matches in the 1980s and 1990s. The engine era only grew its reputation: modern modules rank the Caro-Kann among the most reliable answers to 1.e4, and across Lichess rating bands Black's losing rate stays consistently low. The boring defense nickname is unfair, but opponents understand the feeling.
Compare it with every other opening in the opening statistics archive, or visit its neighbors: Italian Game and Ruy Lopez. Nerd aside: chess notation is a 64 square code, cousin to the ones living next door, like binary and Morse.
Source: the Lichess open game database (database.lichess.org, CC0 data), months 2014-06, 2015-01, 2016-01, snapshot of 2026-07-09: blitz, rapid and classical games with the players' average rating between 1600 and 2199, aggregated by move sequence. Variation names and ECO codes: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0).
Last updated: · Methodology and sources