There are many ways to play this for white; Tal variation, Fantasy variation, Alien Gambit (from Witty_Alien streamer), Two knights defense, Advanced variation, etc.
I personally play the Alien gambit and Tal variation because of it's sudden attack. You could choose any variations however.
Fischer struggled against the Caro-Kann.
He played the Two Knights Variation,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106430
The Panov-Botvinnik Attack,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008400
The Classical Variation,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044008
The King's Indian Attack,
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044315
The Exchange Variation.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044326
Most of the time people play the advance against me.
I cycle between Panov, exchange, KIA and classical depending on what I played last and how I feel.
For any of them, it is more about understanding the middle game build up in the position that results rather than memorizing theory. In 50 years, I've only had 1 short CK game as white so dont expect a knockout.
I'd suggest playing over some annotated games where white wins, pick the approach from the game where you understood the plan that was executed & go with that.
- bill
Why yes, Alien Gambit is one of the lines you need to prepare for when playing Caro-Kann.
Not that anyone has so far tried to play it against me.
The first opening trap for Caro-Kann.
Commenting on here cause I also have trouble with countering the caro kann
Speaking as someone who plays the Caro-Kann with a bit a frequency as a nice break from 1) e4 e5, I do not enjoy going up against someone who plays the Panov Attack line well. I struggle terribly against that.
Bear in mind, this is one person's view, other people will likely have differing perspectives.
I'll add that going up against someone who doesn't play the Panov Attack line well allows me to get a pretty early advantage that I may or may not blunder away.
I have no idea I've been trying to figure that out for years
Another famous Caro-Kann trap (I'm looking for them).
How do you counter caro-kann by black, if you play as white?
If you're looking for a vicious weapon against the caro-kann I recommend the fantasy variation. Naro has some great videos with it on his speedrun!
I was stuck for a while choosing between the Tal variation / Two knights / Panov. In the end I went with the two knights because it transposes well with the chigorin which I also play. And there are numerous ways black can go wrong, but if they don't it's still just completely solid.
But... if I wasn't worried about transpositions, if I was just a straight up e4 player every game, I'd be very tempted to play the Tal variation. Like in the line below, this is the main line... but after Qxb2 white has a 73% winrate... otherwise if black doesn't play Qxb2 and plays perfectly instead it's a basically equal position thats chaotic, but that's very rare. This is an aptly named variation, some of the games that follow are very in the spirit of Tal -
Otherwise the only downside I see of the Tal variation is you also have to deal with the Botvinnik.
Panov is great but I felt it was maybe too aggressive too early, I expect black will study it and learn how to respond. The accelerated Panov also looks more appealing than the regular one, but it doesn't transpose as well.
2 other interesting lines were the fantasy variation and the exchange with Bd3 / h3.
The fantasy looks good but I just felt the burden is really on white to capitalize on the early initiative, and if black knows the lines he can neutralize the initiative and get a strong center going, plus you'll have a significant kingside weakness. I don't think these are fatal problems but it's just a sharper game for white which is not really what I want.
the exchange with Bd3 / h3 is a good line, I think fischer played it some, but I don't really like the idea of exchanging early and simplifying the position, it kind of becomes a slugfest, it just reminds me of other exchange lines that I don't enjoy. Even though I think it's quite a strong line regardless
Most critical is the Advance Variation:
https://www.iccf.com/game?id=278978
https://www.iccf.com/game?id=278961
How do you counter caro-kann by black, if you play as white?