B12

Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Short Variation

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Statistics from Lichess

5,339,071 games: White 46.0% / Draw 4.8% / Black 49.2%

The moves played next. Pick one to see it on the board.
Next move	Games	White / Draw / BlackW / D / B
	4,751,9734.8M
	243,785244K
	105,996106K
	71,85572K
	54,38454K
	30,62431K
	24,59825K
	13,85614K

Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Oct 23, 2026

Engine evaluation

+0.32 White is slightly better

Best play: 4... e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. c3 Ng6 7. O-O f6 8. exf6 Qxf6 9. Qb3

Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.

By rating

The stronger the players, the better this line does for White: White scores 50% under 1400, 53% at 2200 and up and 57% in master games (wins plus half the draws).

Players	Games	White / Draw / BlackW / D / B
Under 1400	2.3M
1400–1799	5M
1800–2199	2.4M
2200 and up	382K
Masters, over the board	13K

Master games

Giri, A. – Carlsen, M. 0–1, 2016
So, W. – Carlsen, M. 1–0, 2020
Caruana, F. – Mamedyarov, S. 0–1, 2018
Vachier Lagrave, M. – Mamedyarov, S. 1–0, 2018
Vachier Lagrave, M. – Mamedyarov, S. 0–1, 2018

Rated blitz, rapid and classical Lichess games by rating band, and over-the-board games of players rated 2200+ from the Lichess masters database, updated Sep 26, 2026

Overview

Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Short Variation (ECO B12, Semi-Open Games) is a variation of the Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, reached after 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 (4 moves).

In 5,339,071 rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, White won 46.0%, Black 49.2% and 4.8% were drawn. Black's most played move here is 4…e6, in 89% of those games.

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Description

Popularity by year

The Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Short Variation has stayed between 0.18% and 0.22% of Lichess games a year since 2016 (0.2% in 2025).

0.18%0.2%0.22%

Numbers by year

Year	Share of games	Games
2016	0.18%	63,645
2017	0.19%	105,124
2018	0.19%	146,233
2019	0.18%	230,190
2020	0.19%	551,057
2021	0.22%	857,012
2022	0.22%	844,795
2023	0.22%	819,902
2024	0.21%	741,511
2025	0.2%	684,912
2026 (Jan–Apr)	0.19%	213,126

Share of rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500 (blitz, rapid and classical) that reach this position, by year; 2026: January to April. Which openings are rising and falling

Cite this page

Caissa Codex. “Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Short Variation (B12)”. Lichess data as of 23 Oct 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/caro-kann-defense-advance-variation-short-variation