Customer Reviews

Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14 (McKay Chess Library)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every series chess player should have at least one good reference book covering the openings. "Modern Chess Openings" goes through regular new editions to keep it updated.
You will not find the ideas behind the moves explained (for that get "Winning Chess Traps" or "Understanding the Openings" along with this book), but the important lines and a general idea of who stands better at the end of each line is given.

I have not seen a more complete and accurate one volume opening reference book than this one. Definately recommended.

Modern Chess Openings does a good job of giving you a general idea of the most important lines in all of the major openings. It will not teach you the ideas behind the openings (get Understanding the Openings or Winning Chess Traps to learn ideas and tactics in the openings) but it will give you a general idea of what is considered to be up to date theory.

I don't know of a better single volume book to be used as a reference on openings. So as far as I am concerned, and want to express my opinion here, this is a good book for a dedicated chess player to get.

There are two rivals to MCO-14 that I can think of offhand: Nunn's Chess Openings and the Small Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (pub. by Chess Informant). I think both have the edge over MCO-14. Though NCO has two hundred pages less than MCO, it provides more coverage, simply because there's less white space. Three GMs and one FM (Burgess) have pooled their efforts; all have have a reputation as good chess authors. The lines given are absolutely main-line. In fact, whenever I'm learning a new opening, NCO is my first port of call, since it gives the crucial, essential lines. The lines have all been computer checked. I don't think MCO can compare. The Small Encyclopedia also gives only essential lines and is not bad, but in my humble opinion is probably not as good as NCO.

For those wanting words, might I suggest Kallai's 'Basic Chess Openings' and 'More Basic Chess Openings'?

The only advantage of MCO is that the abundance of white space makes the text more readable. NCO has attempted to pack the maximum amount of information in its 500+ pages

An amazing reference book for the openings. It shows you all the best lines for almost every single opening. It also has a nice table of contents in the beginning which points you to the opening you need within seconds. Covers all the main variations of the openings too. If you have never seen a reference book, it's just pages and pages of tables with little footnotes explaining certain moves and other possible variations. All the moves are also computer checked for accuracy. What you do with one of these books is play a game like you normally would, and then after the game you check your opening by the way the book went. Then you mentally record your mistakes and you will greatly improve. This can also teach you a new opening, if you like memorizing lines of play. But I would not recommend that. This is the best one volume openings reference book. What I like about this one is that it gives a little background information for all the major openings. This is great for someone who just likes to know everything about chess, especially the opening they use. By the way, its also in algebraic notation, which is a plus. Although all this good stuff comes at a price. This will help however, as long as you use it right.

PROS:
Many Openings and Variations
Good Binding
Nice History of Openings
Algebraic Notation

CONS:
Won't Really Teach You Openings
Takes Some Time to Learn How to Read the Tables
Just A Reference Book

Summary: The best One-Volume openings reference book you can buy, well if you can afford it.

When I look over most reviews, I bet most readers have a hard time. Most of the bad reviews on a book like this are written by a beginner that expected something different. This is a reference book, it isn't meant to be the same as a book based on explanation. You could study 40 pages of this book and play a game that didn't utilize any of what you had learned but then after you could look up what happened and see some other ideas. Consider the case where you get beat over and over by someone that seems to always get an opening edge and this book becomes invaluable in finding ways to improve your play against them.

I don't claim to be a chess god, I'm about 1800 uscf and have 25 or so books. Even a 1200 can gain some help from this type of book but they have to understand that you read reference books a bit different than others. You don't go cover to cover, line by line. Most players should do the first 6-10 moves (or usually until they pick something different) and look for the immediate few possibilities...then move to something different. The problem is that so many try to brute force read it and get discouraged because they can't memorize 30 moves for every opening. MCO was my 2nd chess book and I know I made that mistake at first. You don't read an encyclopedia the same way as Stephen King. The key to determining if you need this at your chess level is to decide are you willing to analyze your own games, which first means writing them down. If you are then this is great for you, if you aren't then you probably want something more guaged to assimilation through explanation.

So yes, Reassess Your Chess or something is going to be a much better book for players to read for a month. But MCO or NCO is going to be a book you keep going back to and putting back down. Impressive is the total number of lines these types of books cover. This would have to be lessened to provide things like detailed explanations of why white is better. Also when you play through a line and find something not listed, you explore it on your own. More times than not you will see that the book is better for you but when it isn't...that means your opponent has a harder time looking it up. For the most part though the knowledge in this book is meant as a means to gradually improve. You study other books, consult this to pick an opening and then play games. As you record and analyze your games you will have a need to figure out when you left book in a game and see if it was wise to do so. It might be they did, you did or even your computer did...but this book can help in researching the problem. A more serious player might have a fairly developed repertoire but consults the book when he is scoring badly against a certain opening to brush up on or simply add variety. It doesn't give you the answer, it gives you a direction. Like most reference books it isn't what knowledge the book contains but how the reader utilizes it. Also when possible I advise getting the hardcover version.

In the end if you need this type of reference book, it should do a good job. I've looked at NCO and MCO and they are both similar. MCO does seem to have a little more explanation but NCO gets a lot of respect from good players. NCO might have an edge on accuracy with MCO having the edge on a bit better explanation. Personally I would like to see a version like either that added 50 more pages of overview analysis, like maybe blitz openings or point to different openings with a similar character to help develop a system. I think this would make the book more accessible to more players just because it would cover GM level as well as the casual player, but many would consider this cluttering for a seperate type of book. The streamlined form of the book is why it is a great reference book after all.

This is pretty much the quintessential reference guide for chess openings - it has been called the chess "bible" by many players. Any serious chess player needs a good openings reference book in their library for reference purposes. But remember this book is an overview of EVERY opening so it doesn't spend too much time on each opening for that you need to buy individual books on individual openings. But this book starts each chapter/opening with a brief overview of the opening, it's history, the main ideas of the opening and the sub-variations. Then it list columns of variations that you can memorize (good luck!) or play through to get a feel for the main ideas in the opening. And lets face it, if you make mistakes in the opening you will likely feel them the entire game so surviving the opening is important! I wouldn't bother with this book if you are rated below say 1500, it would be a waste of your study time.

This is a good book for a reference and has helped me find the right opening for me. The way it is organized helpsplayers find an opening fit to their style. Along with this each opening has a text on the history of the opening and grandmaster that play the opening. Overall its a great book the only problem i had with it is my spine broke.

First and foremost, this book is a reference. If you are hoping to learn openings from MCO, I fear you will be disappointed. While there are some very broad descriptions of openings, they do not have the detail needed to understand the book.

If you have the idea of learning openings by rote, I think you are making a mistake, and should concentrate on the ideas of the openings, and perhaps purchase Chris Ward's Improve your opening play and Reubin Fine's The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.

That said, I find MCO to be a very thorough reference. If you lost a game due to a poor opening, you can look the opening up in MCO, see where you went wrong and what the primary acceptable moves are.

With the caveots mentioned above, I think this is an excellent reference book.

I just ordered this book because it is a great book for almost any chess player but maybe more for the serious player. I borrowed a friends copy of this book and it was so good as a reference while I play chess (vs human or computer opponents) that I had to get a copy for myself. It worked for me right from the first game I used it as a reference. I am now able to get past the opening phase of a game vs strong opponents (ie. rated 2000+) in pretty good shape but lose it in the middle or endgame. Now I can start working on my middle game so I can one day compete with the strong players/computers. I have been trying to find a book with this info for some time so if your stuck on trying to improve your opening play you need this book to get you over the top. It has a huge amount of details for just about any opening I have ever seen. Caution to the novice: this book can be a little hard to read if you don't have the proper knowledge and experience of a serious chess player.

This review is just a warning to beginning players: don't expect this book to help you. It's just a long list of openings and variations, ending with the symbols = or +/= or =/+. (Here's a tip. The initial position would be +/=. This book isn't much more useful than that to anyone rated less than 1500.) If you don't know how to evaluate positions, how to take advantage of imbalances, etc., this book will not help you at all. More general books about opening and middle-game strategy will help most people much more than this book.

As far as the typos, it's not too bad. There are a few, but I've always been able to figure out what was meant easily and quickly.