Customer Reviews

Nunn's Chess Openings (Cadogan Chess Books)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are basically two popular 1 volume opening reference books, "Nunn's Chess Openings" and "Modern Chess Openings". I have heard many opinions as to which is better. I personally think that each has their individual strong points as to accuracy (I like Nunn better) and better coverage of more of the major openings (I like MCO better). So my advice? Get both and have the best of two worlds. If you are a beginner, or in search of that perfect opening to suit your style then you need a book that covers the ideas behind the openings and should book looking at books that cover that, such as "Understanding the Chess Openings" or a good opening trap book. You want to know the ideas behind the openings and not to just memorize lines.

This is the "GrandMaster" of opening books. I am a Master and I teach chess for a living. When my students want to learn an opening, or need a one volume reference for learning new openings, this is the book I recommend to them. A "MUST" for the Postal player! There is more information and fewer mistakes in this book, than any opening compendium I have ever seen! WARNING: If you are a casual chess player, or looking for for a book to help you improve and learn something, this is not the book you seek. This is a book for very serious chess players. If you have never used an opening book before, you will find this book a very difficult "read." Its just lines and recommendations for what is best in the openings. There are a great deal of symbols and lines that end with an evaluation like "White is slightly better." There is nothing that explains why White is better. Unless this type of dialogue would be useful to you, you are better off not buying this book.

Top Grandmaster analysis, computer-checked, state-of-the-art variations makes NCO an excellent reference for stronger or very serious players. However, BE WARNED, NCO has little or no prose explanations of its evaluations(You've got to figure out why White is better, worse, etc.), neither are "thematic" ideas discussed. And NCO does not give those plausible or discredited lines that Kasparov, Karpov, and Anand would never play but are played by that smug fellow at your local club (So you're still on your own, unless he does you the favor of playing the "best" lines). Finally, unless you're familiar with ECO cataloging, the format isn't all that friendly (You've got to know what the Benko Gambit is to look it up, for example). I am only rated USCF 1940, and prefer more tutorial advice than NCO gives, and really prefer Modern Chess Openings Edition 14 by N. DeFirmian as it also gives one page intros to the major lines (as does NCO) but ALSO gives prose evaluations as to why White is worse, better, etc.. It is also VERY easy to look up openings, and its introductions make one curious to play out an opening. Take a look also at Standard Chess Openings by Schiller which is filled with prose desriptions, discussion, and analysis of the openings, as well as opening tips, repertoire possibilities. The drawback though is that other players claim it is far shallower than either NCO or MCO, as well as being less accurate. I have NCO and MCO, the first is for "status" and the second, for use.

I used to own Nunn's Chess Openings (NCO) but I decided that the markings were not useful. NCO has text only in the introductions to each group of openings, and not much there. Modern Chess Openings (MCO-13), on the other hand, often explains in words why a line is good or bad. (e.g. "White's advanced pawn is compensation for the material.")

Beyond that, I prefer MCO-13 to NCO (as well as to MCO-14, ECO, BCO, etc.) because I am simply not good enough to take advantage of recent theoretical weaknesses found in older lines. Most players go nuts trying to keep up with the latest theory. Why? If la Bourdonnais, Morphy, and Steinitz could not find a refutation for a move, what makes you think that you can do it under time pressure?

I would actually prefer an even older reference for precisely this reason. However, MCO-13 was the first in Algebraic Notation (AN). That's strictly a matter of taste.

I am not a fan of openings books, but if you must have something, a used copy of MCO-13 is all you need for reference--maybe even more than you need. Add Burgess's extraordinarily well-organized Quickest Chess Victories of All Time as a reference on traps, and still you are saving money.

The main value of an up-to-date reference book like this is in following recent high-level games. It's fun to notice when Kasparov steps out of theory, especially against a computer. For that purpose, and that purpose only, this is a 5-star book. But if that's your purpose, buy some good software. You are wasting your money on this book.

I decided to write this review after reading the other reviews on this book. I have used this book for about two years and I think it is very helpful. However, there are a few things to remember when deciding to purchase this book:
1. This is a reference book meant for people who are serious about learning chess openings. It is not meant as an "instructional" tool to tell you the ideas of the openings, but instead as a reference if you already have some knowledge of openings and basic strategy.
2. This is not meant for beginners. When it comes to openings, players under say 1300-1400 should concentrate on learning the ideas behind the openings rather than worrying about specific opening lines past move 10. Players under 1300 should try Reuben Fine's Idea's Behind the Chess Openings or Seirawan's Winning Chess Openings to get ideas that come from these openings. Players below this level more often lose games because of tactical blunders rather than not knowing an opening. I actually got this book when I was rated around 1200, and I basically put it away until I was rated around 1500. Now, at 1700, I use it after each of my games to see what "theory" says about the opening I play.
3. This is a comprehensive reference, so it will not have every opening known to man. Some of the unsound gambits and "trick" openings are not covered because a) not many people play them and b) these can be refuted or defeated by understanding tactics better (many of these off-beat openings require the other player to play a natural move and lose because they "missed" the tactical trick. These types of openings should not be in a book such as this, because many players can probably figure out these traps and avoid them in their play. It is true that some of my openings are not covered very much in this book, but a majority of them are, and usually the ones that aren't covered I play because I already have a book or other resource for that opening.

This is a great book if you have some experience in chess and wish to look up openings when analyzing your games or even to learn new openings (until you get good enough that you need more specialized material).

Here comes the new kid on the block, attempting to overthrow Modern Chess Openings (MCO).

Extremely dense, but chock full of new ideas.

Prose explanations are rare.

(Indeed,there are hardly any game references, which makes me wonder if the line is from Kasparov-Karpov, one of the games from the authors, computer analysis, or some guys from the local club!)

But it has all the coverage you would expect of a one-volume opening book.

Should this be the only opening book you buy? No. I find it more interesting to compare lines from MCO and NCO rather than blindly accept one book's version as the final one.

But if you were to _only_ buy this book, you would not be disappointed. You would have to be prepared to play through the lines, and attempt to justify the author's evaluations yourself. You won't get much help from them.

The general sentiment that I've read about this book is correct: there is little in the way of explicit explanations as to which line is better. What this means is that you will not be spoon-fed reasons why a given line is better for white or black; you'll have to do the legwork yourself through an analysis of the position.

Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. People often complain that many books don't give "the ideas" behind openings, but the truth is that there are so many ideas that the truth of a position can't be summed up with a one-liner like "White is better because of his active bishops". It's only though analysis of typical positions that arise from your favorite openings that you will understand the complexities that arise from said openings.

Before buying this book, I recommend playing until you consider yourself to be at an intermediate level in the fields of tactics, analysis and strategy before buying this book.

I read the reviews for this book. Some say it is advanced, others say no prose etc. First and foremost this is a openings manual, therefore either you need it or you dont. It is useful if you play regular tournaments, since you can carry it with you and refer to the lines at the end of the game. It is like any other MCO or whatever. It is a personal choice which one is better, and I dont think it makes a big difference unless you are of and IM or GM strength.

As I said it is a good book to have if 1) You play tournaments regularly 2) you can find one under 15 bucks. If you just play blitz on ICC or at the local club then this book is of little use to you.

A word of caution opening books are like PC's they get oudated rather quickly, but then again unless you are a Garry or Vishy that should make little difference.

The long-awaited replacement for the ancient Batsford Chess Openings II, and Modern Chess Openings 13 has finally arived in the form of NCO. This is a huge work -- some 540 pages in length and densely packed with material.

Devotees of BCO will be instantly familiar with the column and note layout which is absolutely identical. One thing they have improved over BCO is that the openings have been place exactly in the order in which they can be found in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. If you know, for instance, that the Mar del Plata variations of the King's Indian Defense have an ECO code of E99, then you know to go directly to the back of the book.

Critics have made the point that modern chess opening theory has become so advanced that a one-volume compendium just can't cover all the major variations convincingly. This may be true, and with the advent of databases and laptop PCs, NCO may be of limited usefulness to GMs, but to those of us down here in Patzerland it is often difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff and determine which among 1.2 million are the seminal games in a given variation. NCO tells us and provides an excellent starting-point for any db search.

If you are a serious tournament competitor under USCF 2400, this book is for you. It's not inexpensive at $30, but will almost certainly assume a front-and-center position among all you chess reference works. I just hope that we do not have to wait another decade for a replacement...

I got this book just to have a book with some lines that were more up to date than "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" by Reuben Fine... This book is NOT for beginners or newly-achieved amateurs. Each openings chapter gives a short essay on the idea of the opening, but I would definitely have to direct anyone pursuing greater openings understanding to Reuben Fine's book, "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings". Nunn's book makes a great reference book for openings, but one must realize that today's chess tournament life is constantly in pursuit of an opening that is more surprising or forgotten (thus newer or older respectively) than what was played in the few previous years...Don't take up a lot of your time trying to get through every move of even one chapter of this book. Just use it as a reference book.