Chess King Learn Caro-Kann Course Review

Chess King Learn sells two Caro-Kann courses, and both pages describe exercise sets that serve both sides of the opening, so neither page describes a repertoire for Black. At 299 rubles each they are cheap practice if you already know which lines you play. The pages we read were in Russian, so treat this as a guide to what you are buying rather than a verdict, and pick a course with named lines if you still need to choose your repertoire.

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Test depth: Public information only. Nobody at ChessCourseFinder has taken this course. This page is based on Chess King Learn pages read on 8 November 2026, which were in Russian. How we review explains the limits.

This review has no star score. Fit, price and limits are set out instead, and how reviews are made is public.

Which course is which

There are two Caro-Kann products, and which one a searcher means by "the Chess King Caro-Kann course" is unclear, so both are described here. The descriptions are our own translation of the Russian pages.

The English course name for 128 comes from a search summary. Prices are in rubles as shown on the Russian-language pages on 8 November 2026, and we have not converted them. Search listings showed $7.99 for both, which conflicts with the page currency and probably reflects locale. We read no US-dollar price on a page. Neither page named an author or stated hours.

Note that the counters on course 36 add up to 431, not 350, so we cannot say what each one counts.

Exercise course or repertoire: why it matters

The important finding is the "both sides" wording, because a repertoire makes choices and these pages describe serving both sides of the opening. A Black repertoire tells you which one move to play against the Advance and which against the Classical. An exercise course drops you into key positions and asks what to do. That is valuable practice, but it assumes that you already know which positions you want.

The format does have a research case behind it, within limits. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who took recall tests retained prose passages better a week later than students who restudied them. That study used prose and students, not chess, so read it as a reason to think testing yourself is worthwhile, not as evidence about these courses.

Which one to pick, on the descriptions alone:

• You know your lines and want practice: course 128, whose page is about key opening positions.
• You are around the stated range and want tactics in sharp lines: course 36.
• You have not chosen a repertoire: neither yet.
• You are below about 1500: the sellers' ranges start above you, whichever rating system they mean, since they name none.

What a Caro-Kann exercise set should make you see

A good set should train the tactical ideas that recur in this opening. These are standard Caro-Kann patterns, and you can use them to judge any sample exercises.

• The smothered mate. After 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Qe2 Ngf6?? White mates with 6.Nd6, because the e7-pawn is pinned. It is the classic warning about that move order.
• The hunted bishop in the Advance. After 3.e5 Bf5, White can chase the bishop with g4 or h4. Modern Chess's page for Eljanov's Part 2 gives the reply 4.g4 Be4 and 4.h4 h5, which shows the kind of precise answer an exercise should demand.
• The clamp in the Classical. After 4...Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7, White's h-pawn fixes the kingside, and later tactics often turn on it.
• The d4-d5 break in the Panov. Isolated-pawn positions come down to whether White can push the d-pawn safely.

The course 36 page we read refers only to "the sharpest and most important variations" and names none. Each course page has a contents heading, but no list came through when we read it, because the page relies on JavaScript. That means we could not read the list, not that there isn't one. Open it in a browser and look for the lines you play.

What 299 rubles buys

Calculated from the listed figures, 299 RUB over 345 items is about 0.87 RUB per item, and over 350 exercises about 0.85 RUB. Both courses come to 598 RUB. If the $7.99 in search listings is what you are charged, that is about 2.3 US cents per item on course 128. Hours are not stated, so we cannot give a cost per hour.

According to the pages you can buy one course with unlimited access or take a subscription for all courses, a group of courses or a time period. The site says "(c) 2013-2026 Chess King", offers web, Android and iOS, and says up to 130+ courses. Refund terms were not stated on the pages we read. At this price the refund matters less than whether the course fits.

Check these before paying

1. Set the language menu to English. The pages list English among 11 languages, but we cannot say whether each course's text and annotations are translated.
2. Open the contents list and look for the lines you actually play.
3. Try any free items, and see whether wrong answers get an explanation or just a correction.
4. Confirm the price in your own currency at checkout.
5. Check whether the course is available in the app you would use, since the page says it is on mobile.

Who it might suit, and who should skip it

It may suit a Caro-Kann player, or someone who meets it as White, who wants cheap interactive practice and can cope with a partly translated interface. Skip it if you need a repertoire built for you, a named author, an English syllabus or a refund policy. One Lichess forum user called course 36 the best program for learning the Caro-Kann; we saw this only as a search snippet, and it is one person's view.

The free route

Lichess has a large free equivalent for the tactics half. Its puzzles by opening listed 74,740 Caro-Kann Defense puzzles on 8 November 2026, which is about 217 times the 345 items in course 128. The two are different things: Lichess's puzzles are tactics from real games rather than a curated theory course, and they do not explain the opening. Try those first, and see Lichess studies and practice for building your own files.

Better-documented alternatives

If what you need is a repertoire, these state their choices more clearly. Caro-Kann According to Dreev - Part 1 lists 79.00 EUR and 6h 26m on a page we could read, but Part 1 covers only the Advance Variation. The Eljanov course names its lines part by part, and the L'Ami Chessable course is the large option. Our best Caro-Kann courses page compares them.

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• That neither page describes a Black repertoire. The "both sides" wording is on the pages, but it is easy to miss on a product called a Caro-Kann course.
• What the counters mean, since the two on course 36 do not match its stated exercise count.
• The author, and which rating system the ranges use.
• A price in your own currency, and whether the English version matches the Russian one.