Answers.Body: <p>According to Lichess's database for games between ~1600 rated players in the Caro-kann does indeed show that <em>3. e5</em> is much more common than other moves.
  <em><strong>e5</strong></em> in fact <strong>accounts for 46% of games</strong> played; compare this to the second most common move, exd5, which is only 28%.</p>
  <p>Often when amateurs are learning the concept of space in chess, the Advanced French Defense is used as an example. <em>3. e5</em> therefore is a common move for amateur white players to play against the French Defense.</p>
  <p>Since the Caro-Kann resembles the French Defense, I believe amateur players simply play <em>3. e5</em> as it is what they know best. (This is only my best guess, don't take this as a hard fact).</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T01:20:12.603Z
Answers.Text: cool. Though I wouldn't expect that amateurs play the advance french most often, or do they?
Answers.UserDisplayName: CognisMantis
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T09:22:44.327Z
Answers.Text: I looked it up in the lichess database for players below 2000 and the advance french is played slightly more often than the exchange french, followed by the paulsen (858.000 to 823.000 to 607.000 respectively).
Answers.UserDisplayName: Benjamin Raabe
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T21:22:36.920Z
Answers.Text: @Benjamin Raabe And the advance french becomes even more common if you look at only players rated below 1800. (343,000 to 240,000)
Answers.UserDisplayName: Tauist
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-15T21:51:23.220Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-09-16T00:48:28.513Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-09-16T00:48:28.513Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Tauist
Answers.Body: <p>Amateurs are slaves to grandmaster fashion. When a line gets noticed at the 2800 level, the 2500 players adopt it, then the 2200, 1900, and so on.</p>
  <p>Also, bad chess coaches recommend 3. e5 because there's less for their students to remember, though it shouldn't be a matter of memorization but understanding.</p>
  <ol start="3">
  <li>e5 is still a popular choice among strong players and the fashion slaves who follow them, and bad coaches are still bad coaches, so there's a lot of 3. e5 going around.</li>
  </ol>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-15T23:41:25.697Z
Answers.Text: Do you mean e5 is slightly inferior to the other two moves?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Zuriel
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T00:05:02.060Z
Answers.Text: How do you  get *that*? Openings practice is based in fashion. 3. e5 was the height of fashion 30 or so years ago, and remains popular, neither better nor worse than 3. Nc3, 3. Nd2, 3. f3, 3. exd5.....
Answers.UserDisplayName: friscodelrosario
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T00:59:25.707Z
Answers.Text: I misread your statement "bad chess coaches recommend 3. e5 ..."
Answers.UserDisplayName: Zuriel
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T08:13:37.207Z
Answers.Text: Aha. Bad chess coaches recommend good moves for the wrong reasons. For instance, I have a lot to say about why chess teachers should not recommend 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3? Nc6? , but it's all bad teachers think they know.
Answers.UserDisplayName: friscodelrosario
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-18T04:08:40.480Z
Answers.Text: I wish to learn why 2. Nf3 deserves a question mark.
Answers.UserDisplayName: user58697
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-18T07:09:45.420Z
Answers.Text: 2. Nf3 is an excellent move, for all the right reasons. Center control, threatening, small pieces first, castling soon, blah blah. That said, 2. Nf3 isn't best for learners. If I tell a kid to play white and make any two moves, which would they be, almost everyone gets e2-e4 plus d2-d4, yeah? So why do 99% of chess coaches flush that logic and teach e2-e4  plus Ng1-f3? Also, 2. Nf3 enables three counterattacks: 2...d5, 2...f5, 2..Nf6, which 2. d4 does not. 2. d4 is the right move for non-masters, but average players (most chess teachers) are slaves to fashion, and fashion indicates 2. Nf3.
Answers.UserDisplayName: friscodelrosario
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Answers.UserDisplayName: friscodelrosario
Answers.Body: <p>I have played thousand of games with the French over the past 40 years (not all OTB, of course)and my experience is that lower rated amateurs tend to choose ed5. This is too bad from my perspective as there
  are more chances for B (in my opinion) after e5 c5  or Nc3 Bb4.</p>
  <p>--Doug Grant
  formerly 2330, now down to 2100 (age-related)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-17T20:42:50.877Z
Answers.Text: OP is asking about the Caro-Kann, not the French.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Herb
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-19T00:05:39.657Z
Answers.Text: OOPS...Sorry. Another age-related issue...little letters.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Doug Grant
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-09-17T17:23:06.347Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-09-17T17:23:06.347Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Doug Grant
Body: <p>My database shows that after 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5, white has the following main variations:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>
  <ol start="3">
  <li>Nc3</li>
  </ol>
  </li>
  <li>
  <ol start="3">
  <li>exd5</li>
  </ol>
  </li>
  <li>
  <ol start="3">
  <li>e5</li>
  </ol>
  </li>
  </ul>
  <p>and they are equally popular among professional players. However, from my experience playing online games, I have observed that among amateur players, 3. e5 is far more popular than the other two moves.  Is it true that 3. e5 is statistically more popular than 3. Nc3 and 3. exd5 among amateur players? If so, why?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-09-15T23:38:01.247Z
Comments.Text: I wonder if this game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1007846 has anything to do with it. It is possible that the only thing some amateurs know about Caro-Kann is that game.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Akavall
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-09-16T08:38:10.553Z
Comments.Text: Impossible to answer as there is no hard cut off for when someone is an "amateur", and the lower you get in playing strength, the fewer games are recorded.
Comments.UserDisplayName: RemcoGerlich
Tags: <statistics><caro-kann>
Title: Is it true that amateur players tend to choose the advance variation after 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5?
ThreadText: # Is it true that amateur players tend to choose the advance variation after 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-15)
  
  My database shows that after 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5, white has the following main variations:
  
  * 3. Nc3
  * 3. exd5
  * 3. e5
  
  and they are equally popular among professional players. However, from my experience playing online games, I have observed that among amateur players, 3. e5 is far more popular than the other two moves. Is it true that 3. e5 is statistically more popular than 3. Nc3 and 3. exd5 among amateur players? If so, why?
  
  **Tags:** statistics, caro-kann
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I wonder if this game: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1007846 has anything to do with it. It is possible that the only thing some amateurs know about Caro-Kann is that game.  
  > **username_2**: Impossible to answer as there is no hard cut off for when someone is an "amateur", and the lower you get in playing strength, the fewer games are recorded.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2020-09-15. Score: 7
  
  According to Lichess's database for games between ~1600 rated players in the Caro-kann does indeed show that *3. e5* is much more common than other moves.
  ***e5*** in fact **accounts for 46% of games** played; compare this to the second most common move, exd5, which is only 28%.
  
  Often when amateurs are learning the concept of space in chess, the Advanced French Defense is used as an example. *3. e5* therefore is a common move for amateur white players to play against the French Defense.
  
  Since the Caro-Kann resembles the French Defense, I believe amateur players simply play *3. e5* as it is what they know best. (This is only my best guess, don't take this as a hard fact).
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_4**: cool. Though I wouldn't expect that amateurs play the advance french most often, or do they?  
  > **username_5**: I looked it up in the lichess database for players below 2000 and the advance french is played slightly more often than the exchange french, followed by the paulsen (858.000 to 823.000 to 607.000 respectively).  
  > **username_3**: @username_5 And the advance french becomes even more common if you look at only players rated below 1800. (343,000 to 240,000)  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2020-09-15. Score: 2
  
  Amateurs are slaves to grandmaster fashion. When a line gets noticed at the 2800 level, the 2500 players adopt it, then the 2200, 1900, and so on.
  
  Also, bad chess coaches recommend 3. e5 because there's less for their students to remember, though it shouldn't be a matter of memorization but understanding.
  
  3. e5 is still a popular choice among strong players and the fashion slaves who follow them, and bad coaches are still bad coaches, so there's a lot of 3. e5 going around.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Do you mean e5 is slightly inferior to the other two moves?  
  > **username_6**: How do you  get *that*? Openings practice is based in fashion. 3. e5 was the height of fashion 30 or so years ago, and remains popular, neither better nor worse than 3. Nc3, 3. Nd2, 3. f3, 3. exd5.....  
  > **username_0**: I misread your statement "bad chess coaches recommend 3. e5 ..."  
  > **username_6**: Aha. Bad chess coaches recommend good moves for the wrong reasons. For instance, I have a lot to say about why chess teachers should not recommend 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3? Nc6? , but it's all bad teachers think they know.  
  > **username_7**: I wish to learn why 2. Nf3 deserves a question mark.  
  > **username_6**: 2. Nf3 is an excellent move, for all the right reasons. Center control, threatening, small pieces first, castling soon, blah blah. That said, 2. Nf3 isn't best for learners. If I tell a kid to play white and make any two moves, which would they be, almost everyone gets e2-e4 plus d2-d4, yeah? So why do 99% of chess coaches flush that logic and teach e2-e4  plus Ng1-f3? Also, 2. Nf3 enables three counterattacks: 2...d5, 2...f5, 2..Nf6, which 2. d4 does not. 2. d4 is the right move for non-masters, but average players (most chess teachers) are slaves to fashion, and fashion indicates 2. Nf3.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2020-09-17. Score: 1
  
  I have played thousand of games with the French over the past 40 years (not all OTB, of course)and my experience is that lower rated amateurs tend to choose ed5. This is too bad from my perspective as there
  are more chances for B (in my opinion) after e5 c5 or Nc3 Bb4.
  
  --username_8
  formerly 2330, now down to 2100 (age-related)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_9**: OP is asking about the Caro-Kann, not the French.  
  > **username_8**: OOPS...Sorry. Another age-related issue...little letters.  
  
  ---
  
  