First Steps: Caro-Kann Defence (Everyman Chess)

The CK is a part of my repertoire and I've built a small library over time of CK books ranging from beginner to more difficult. I myself am an intermediate-level player. ...and I got a lot out of this book, but I think the ideal audience is someone like me rather than a true beginner, so I think "First Steps" is a little misleading. Why is this? - I already had a small library of CK books, so I wasn't sure this would add much, but I was reading the author's book on the Budapest gambit and I really liked his style of starting out with a good number of high-level game, watching them play out with his commentary, *before* moving on to theory. IMO, this angle puts "theory" in the right perspective and integrates the opening and midgame better than just memorizing opening moves. This is a higher bar for beginners, though… to patiently move through the opening games without a clear idea of what is (or should be) going on. Some of these games show sometimes subtle early mid game positional advantages from variations of less common opening variants of the CK... so very interesting to me, but I would not have been able to fathom at a beginner level. - The commentary on the intro games is good for an intermediate, but may even be beyond that. Personally, I don't think the commentary is quite as good as in his Budapest Gambit book. It's kind of acidic, which is par for the course for chess books, I guess, but probably intimidating for newbies. There are some really great positional insights, but just as many tedious 10 move variation suggestions which seem just cut and paste from an engine. As an intermediate I can pick and choose what I think would benefit me or not, and can visualize the board somewhat, but if you're a beginner following all these out, it will be totally exhausting and you'll never make it to the second part of the book. The selection of games seems a little biased and maybe even a little catty. For instance, he shows one of the experts in CK being beaten by an unorthodox attack from a player he seems to admire... there seems to be some backstory here. I thought it was entertaining, but I think a first steps beginner would get nothing out of this game. Black also often loses games which is instructive to a more seasoned CK player, but totally disheartening for a newbie. - The second part of the book (a more focused discussion of theory) is solid, but not broken down into a granular enough level for a beginner I think, like some other books do. It’s better for me where I already know what the next few moves should be and can appreciate his insights on the particular line we're studying, but harder for a true newbie who would be really lost at sea trying to put the more basic details together while absorbing the more subtle positional commentary. So, in summary. I like this book and I think it was a good addition to my CK library. I really like Martin's style of starting with numerous games, progressing through time so you can see how lines have evolved, and then going into “theory." Really works well for me in understanding how opening lines came about, rather than straight memorization. However -- this is not a beginner book. This is a "First Steps" if you are an intermediate player, know some theory in other openings, and want to add CK to your repertoire... this book would be good for that person. Or if you already have some familiarity with CK and want to hit it from a different game-centric angle... it is also good for that person. If you're a true beginner and want to learn CK as one of your first additions to your repertoire, go for a different book and maybe come back to this one after you have some familiarity with the basics.

A little difficult to follow

The description of the book on the Amazon store says the series is "the ideal place to start" and that it emphasizes: "* the basic principles * the basic strategies * the key tricks and traps" First of all, I'd like to warn you that this book is none of that. This book is a collection of complete games from grandmasters illustrating a few of the main branches of the Caro Kann opening. The examples and counter examples and also the analysis are instructive, but the author never claims to focus on the lower branches of the tree. For instance, when the author introduces game 29 from 2017, he says: "the Ng5 line is heavily analyzed these days and the coming game is pretty much the latest word on the theory". Then he goes on a variation concerning move 19. You can't call it a beginners book only because it doesn't include that many variations. For a throughout "latest word" I'd go for Houska's book, which doesn't focus on complete games but on the alternative moves on each variation. A book with alternatives to the first moves would be useful both for beginners and for preparation against players not familiar with the opening, but this is not that book. A collection of games is still useful to get a taste of the typical gameplay of the opening, though.

I love Andrew Martin's chess instruction. I've enjoyed every book and video of his that I've purchased and used. My only issue with this book (and why it doesn't get 5 stars) has nothing to do with IM Martin's instruction. The problem is that the fonts in the Kindle edition are quite wonky, sometimes bold, sometimes not, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller, even within the same paragraph. This is obviously a glitch. If those responsible (I'm not sure who that is; is it Amazon? the original publisher?) could fix the fonts, this would be a 5-star book for me.

The book was in very good condition

An introductory text to the Karo-Kann and written very well. Read this before moving on to Houska, etc.