Caro-Kann: Move by Move

I'd recommend this book to lower rated to mid rated players looking to put some time into learning a opening for life. This is a good travel book for lower rated since there's generally pictures every couple of moves. Lots of prose to understand the mentality behind the position and not just straight algebraic calculations.Now what are the two big variations recommended?For early 3Nc3 and 3Nd2, the Smylsov! As for the opening, I play English for white and Alekhine/Benoni for black. I love crazy games where you get to a point where you play chess and choose the plan and not memorized positions. This book is worth it for the tactical lines of the Smylsov alone. The Capablanca variation, with Bf5, can burn the excitement when you see white pound out 15 moves without thinking just to reach a decent position with somewhat predictable plans. If you're deadset on this, check out Houska's book as a good complement. If you're like me, and like making opponents think earlier on, the Smylsov is really interesting. I never knew the Smylsov was so out of fashion until I started playing it. It's fascinating to see how much more time my opponents spend on the clock tinkering around with all the tactical possibilities before making a move. It feels like you're playing chess again instead of pounding out some memorized moves towards a predictable plan.For the Advance, it recommends an early Nd7 and mainline Shirov. I'm not a big fan of the advance lines in this book. I prefer early c5 in Short variation and early f6 in Shirov. I think the lines are good just don't provide for the crazy play/counterattack you get in the traditional battleground mainlines.Solid recommendations for advance with early Qc7.Other than that, read along and learn about one of the most fascinating openings in chess! Great organization. I typically prefer move trees than annotated games but found this to be more of an intro book to an opening. I've always loved the Caro Kann except for the Capablanca. I've switched now with all the excitement of the Smylsov and pushing myself to think of chess in a new light.

This is a very nice book explaining the moves for the caro kann. As you play the caro you will find that there are many books on the opeing and many books just on a specific lines, for example I have several books just on the advance variation of the caro kann. and while these other books are nice they dnt cover any other variations like exchange variation or even fantasy variation. This book is more like a primer on the caro kann it is where you start before you move on to books dedicated to specific line. The book points out weakness on your side and your opponents, where to concentrate your attack and where the traps are and what the startegy is behind the moves. Whats nice is that you are not just learning the opeing, your are training your self in positional play and will see your self evaluating other opening the way you learned to study the caro with this book.

This is a nice collection of Caro-Kann games. It's great that it focuses on the ideas behind the opening so people know what they're getting into. That makes it easier to play the opening and feel comfortable.Unfortunately, I've found that it has limited use for preparing me for online play. 1/3 of the time I play the Caro-Kann I face this weird version of the Caro-Kann exchange:1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5As far as I can tell, this line isn't discussed even once in the text. It looks like a garbage line, but I'd appreciate an analysis of it because I see it 33% of the time when I play the Caro-Kann.The author may want to consider adding more club player and online player lines into this text to make it more useful for us.It would also be helpful if there were an appendix that contained the recommended lines in MCO format. This will help for those of us who are entering the repertoire into a spaced repetition program.

After a lot of studying and practice, I personally concluded that 4...Nd7 Smyslov is the superior Caro-Kann line. That's whyI bought this book. And what I discovered is that Mr. Lakdawala and I think very similarly, so much so that I have modified my repertoire to match his suggestions and discovered that he is right every time. That's when you know the chess openings book you have is excellent.

I love this book. It's highly instructive both in regards to the opening and the strategical themes encountered within it. His repertoire choices are refreshing. I also enjoy his teaching/writing style.

complete coverage of the Caro-Kann

My biggest complaint about the book is that it doesn't cover any 4. Bf5 lines, the classical main line, at all. I understand Lakdawala prefers the Smyslov (Karpov) 5. Nd7, and he makes a compelling case for it, but I don't think you should call it a complete repertoire while excluding the most popular variation.I also don't find the complete game analysis to be useful for an opening book. I bought this to develop my Caro repertoire, which the book certainly does, but if all you are looking for is an opening book around 60% of the content here will be unnecessary. Studying Karpov endgames is an extremely useful exercise, but not what I was looking for in an opening book.

Excellent book and content - very readable.

Me gusta mucho el formato, que utiliza el autor.Excelente libro de la CaroKann

l'autore tralascia alcune varianti e ci spiega anche i motivi. Il panorama della Caro-Kann è molto vasto ma si riesce facilmente a capire le idee di fondo che stanno dietro a questa solida apertura. I libri della collana "move by move" sono in generale ben fatti e li consiglio a giocatori sotto i 1800 Elo al fine di poter aumentare le proprie possibilità contro giocatori più preparati.

Livre absolument fantastique. L'organisation de ce livre est parfaite avec les grandes variantes présentées par chapitre. Chaque coup est explicite et on comprends mieux la logique des coups et de telle variantes. De bien belles parties illustrent les différentes facettes de l'ouverture. Un des meilleurs livres, Non, le meilleur livre que j'ai jamais eu. Je recommande vivement ce livre et plus globalement les move by move. Excellent achats d'un livre sur une belle ouverture.

Cyrus gives a talkative review of some lines in the Caro Kann, which works well, grabbing the attention as he bids to bring his ideas to the fore. I've wanted to play the SteinitzSmyslov/Karpov variation for some time but found it daunting. The author explains the concepts and resulting play clearly so that black can move accordingly. A pleasant change from the Classical and there is much that varies from other Caro Kann books. I'd recommend it.

Ein gutes, didaktisch sehr gut aufgebautes Buch, das den Leser sehr informativ (Fragen zu kritischen Zügen werden immer wieder gestellt und sehr einfach und verständlich beantwortet)und optisch gut (immer wieder Stellungsbilder)in die Gedankenwelt des Caro Kann führt.Bis Elo 2200 auf jeden Fall empfehlenswert!