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Starting Out: The Sicilian Dragon Reviewed by S. Evan Kreider, July 2006
For those readers not familiar with the Starting Out series, its purported purpose is to introduce “improving players” to various openings (among other things – there are also Starting Out books on attacking play, defensive play, various types of endgames, etc.). “Improving players” – the phrase the publisher uses – is a rather vague notion, and in practice, the various installments of this series have been aimed at a rather wide variety of levels. Some, such as John Emms’ Starting Out: The Sicilian, could be of use to players from as low as class C up to class A or so. Others, such as Jacob Aagaard’s Starting Out: The Gruenfeld, were much more sophisticated, and probably best left to readers of expert to master level. IM Martin’s book appears to fall somewhere in the middle, aimed as it seems at the class B to expert crowd. This is primarily due to a slight bias towards theory over explanation. That’s not to say that there isn’t a great deal of explanation in this text – there is – but there is also a LOT of theory, and occasions in which the particular point that IM Martin is trying to make can only be grasped by playing through several long lines. Here’s an example from the from pages 32-33 of the text, after the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 Nbd7:
You get the idea – well explained, but definitely not for beginners. The overall quality of the theory and explanation is quite good, but not certainly not perfect. Theory-wise, this is not a complete work, and there are some gaps. For example, in a recent review for ChessCafe.com, Carsten Hansen pointed out that IM Martin spends too little time on the Levenfish Attack main moves 6…Nc6 and 6...Nbd7 compared to the coverage of the less important 6...Qa5 and 6...Bg7, and that the coverage in chapter six (“The Modern 6 Bc4”) lacks any discussion of any of the main lines. I sympathize with these concerns, but I’m not sure how serious they are with regard to the Starting Out series and its audience of “improving players.” I suppose each individual who is considering buying the book will have to decide for himself or herself how important this is. As far as the quality of the explanations involved, in general I found them to be thorough and clear, but again certainly not perfect. For example, White’s multi-purpose prophylactic Kb1 is common to many lines of the Yugoslav Attack, and even after looking at this book, I’m still not clear about when White should spend the time on it and when it can be omitted. This is very important in lines that involve opposite-side castling and attacks. We are taught that in such situations time is of the essence, and the attacker must often accept the risks of the counter-attack. As a result, Kb1 is not an obvious or intuitive move, and us mere mortal players need more guidance as to when it is necessary and when it is not. Regarding the scope of the book, the coverage of various lines is more or less appropriate to their popularity and importance. After a 20 page introduction (consisting of a handful of annotated games representing a variety of lines), IM Martin spends almost 120 pages on the Yugoslav Attack (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 followed by Qd2 and O-O-O), then about 15 pages each on the Classical variation (6.Be2), the “Modern 6 Bc4,” and the Levenfish Attack (6.f4), and a final chapter on a variety of “Other Tries for White” (including 6.g3, 6.Bg5, 6.Nd5, and 6.Bb5+). For the most part, I was satisfied with this coverage – certainly the Yugoslav deserves the space it gets, and no other major variation is left out. However, I do feel that in a Starting Out book, a little more attention ought to be paid to variations which are popular and/or dangerous at the club level, and in this respect, I think the Levenfish could have used just a little more coverage. I also felt that the section on the Classical variation could have used a little more structure – White has opportunities for either subtle positional play or straightforward kingside attacking play, and I would have liked a little more discussion of when one or the other is appropriate and how White should proceed (this is especially true of the positional approach to the Classical, about the strategy of which IM Martin says little other than that it involves “expansion”). One other thing a potential buyer should know about the coverage is that it is definitely from Black’s perspective. As a result, there are a variety of Black moves that are not covered; for example, in the Classical variation, IM Martin doesn’t deal with 9…Ng4. That means that White players are going to have to look elsewhere if they hope to be reasonably prepared against the Dragon, and Black players wishing to investigate some other lines will have to do the same. Finally, we come
full circle to the nature and purpose of the Starting Out series, and
how this book fits into it. I would say that this is probably not going to
be someone’s first book on the Dragon unless he or she is already an
expert. Club players would probably be better suited by simply buying John
Emms’ Starting Out: The Sicilian and reading the chapter on the
Dragon, and then just playing it a lot, and playing through any annotated
games they can find. After that, something like the Easy Guide to
the Dragon by Mikhail Golubev might be a good first book devoted
wholly to the Dragon. Only at the point when players start coming up
against opponents who actually seem to know some theory past move 8 or 9
(probably high class B or so) should they seriously think about moving on to
this book, at which point, I do think it would be invaluable. Thus, for the
right audience, this book is indispensable, while other players might be
better off with something else for the time being.
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The Sicilian Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6) is an
immensely popular opening at all levels, from the local club player all the
way up to grandmaster. And why not? In some ways, the Dragon is a
microcosm of chess, containing as it does both the subtlest of strategies
and the most exciting of attacks and counter-attacks. The only problem for
most players is figuring out where to start. In this book, IM Martin
(pictured)
proposes to solve that problem for us. Let’s see how he does!