© 2015 Jonathan Whitcomb
Chess Books
Detailed Chess Books on the Openings
Beat That Kid in Chess, for the raw beginner,
covers a few basic principles of openings
Modern Chess Openings (MCO) has undergone many revisions since its
original publication in 1911. The fifteenth edition was pubished in 2008.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th editions were revisions by Nick de Firmian, with
those ones published by A. & C. Black, David McKay, and Random House.
One Amazon reader has commented, “. . . for a class A player, like myself,
or below, MCO-14 is far more useful, than say, Nunn's Chess Openings . . .”
He listed the following reasons for his preference over NCO:
1.
More (and better) verbal descriptions of the openings
2.
Prose evaluations of the variations . . . why a player is better or worse
3.
Easier look up of openings . . . double king pawn . . . etc.
The back cover of Modern Chess Openings (14th ed) says, “In chess, how
you begin a game has far-reaching repercussions—from setting the pace
and tone of the game to, often, determining the final result. The first few
maneuvers can be the most important one of all.”
Openings
in General
Fundamental Chess Openings (FCO) was published in 2009 by Gambit
Publications, written by Paul van der Sterren. In contrast to MCO, it has
lengthy detailed verbal explanations; MCO concentrates on great numbers
of variations instead.
One Amazon reader reviewer said, “This book is a miracle. It's fills a gap
between more simple opening encyclopedia like Seirawan's Winning
Chess Openings, Collins Understanding the Chess Openings, and specific
. . . books. This . . . is in fact a modern and a more advanced version
of Ruben Fine’s The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings. And lower rated
chess players (below 1800) should understand the chess opening plans,
rather than memorizing [variations].”
The back cover of Fundamental Chess Openings says, “The first moves
of a chess game define the nature of the whole struggle, as both players
stake their claim to the critical squares and start to develop their plans.
Modern Chess Openings, 14th edition
Fundamental Chess Openings is like MCO
