Caro-Kann Defense: St. Patrick's Attack
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. h3
The Caro-Kann Defense: St. Patrick's Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO B10, reached after 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. h3. It is a line of the Caro-Kann Defense. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 82 times by this move order. White won 49%, 6% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 3… dxe4 (49% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.11 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 3… d4 4. Nce2 e5 5. Ng3 Be6 6. c3)
- ECO
- B10
- Moves
- 5 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pp2pppp/2p5/3p4/4P3/2N4P/PPPP1PP1/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. h3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 33 | |
| 1500-1999 | 33 | |
| 2000+ | 16 | |
| All | 82 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3… dxe4 | 40 (49%) | |
| 3… d4 | 16 (20%) | |
| 3… Nf6 | 10 (12%) | |
| 3… e6 | 5 (6%) | |
| 3… e5 | 4 (5%) | |
| 3… g6 | 3 (4%) | |
| 3… Be6 | 1 (1%) | |
| 3… a6 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 33%, draw 0%, Black 67%). The strongest:
- IM Mark Quinn (2386) – FM Conor O`Donnell (2358) 0-1 · Philip Hogarty Mem GM 2019 · 2019-01-03
- Thomas Schwenkreis (2103) – Gerhard Kuhn (1957) 1-0 · XVIII Rhein-Main-Open · 2015-06-05
- Moritz Bigalke (1776) – Jakub Rygl (1441) 0-1 · 20th Liberec Open 2020 · 2020-02-24
Search all games of the Caro-Kann Defense: St. Patrick's Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Teimoso (2262) – Libyan_attack (2211) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-05 · 300 + 0s
- DraganOstojin (2206) – vojindjukic (2226) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- lbrtpsn (2168) – Aimir_Giniiat77 (2157) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Caro-Kann Defense (2. Nc3 d5) 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5
More Caro-Kann Defense lines (all)
- Caro-Kann Defense (1. e4 c6) B10
- Caro-Kann Defense (1… c6 2. Nc3) B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack (1… c6 2. c4) B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack (2. c4 d5) B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack, Modern Variation B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack, Open Variation B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack, Pseudo-Scandinavian B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Accelerated Panov Attack, Van Weersel Attack B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Apocalypse Attack B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Breyer Variation B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Breyer Variation, Stein Attack B10
- Caro-Kann Defense: Dinic Gambit B10
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.