Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book is a great reference source for all chessplayers. I bring it along to all major tournaments I attend, and if I encounter an opening I'm not familiar with, I look it up, and find the current, favored lines. A must for everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Depends on what you are looking for
Review: This book is a huge list of lines and moves with almost no verbal explanations. The binding is not so good either. After I found out what this book is really about I used it very little and still it's falling apart. The only good thing about it is it's very easy to follow the moves. If you are looking for learning a new opening don't buy this book. I made the mistake of buying this book thinking it will teach me openings, but for someone at my level it's just useless. Also from what I understand NCO is more accurate, but MCO is easier to read (if you can call it read). If you are not very good players and you don't understand exactly what this book is don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck!
Review: This book is bad, I mean I compare NCO with this and NCO is sooooo much more accurarate.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern Chess Openings
Review: This book is the best book on chess openings I have ever seen and in it contains more openings that I could possibly find. This book is a must to the improving chess player as it is essential to have a good opening. Though you may find it boring it is very hard to find a book of such thorough imformation and intense study.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is a great book! I just got it yesterday and have looked at the main lines of most of the openings and it is very descriptive. It took me a little bit to figure out the tables but after I got that sorted through it was very easy. I have been looking for a good openings book for a while and now I have one.
Rating:
Summary: Wait a little and get the 15th edition
Review: This is a great book, the definitive source of chess openings. Wait for a bit before you buy this book though, because there is a 15th edition coming out soon, and its supposedly got a lot more to it than this one does.
Rating:
Summary: Good for better players
Review: 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 =/+. 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.
Rating:
Summary: Just Lines - No Instruction
Review: Todays' competitive chess player benefits the most from computer training to absorb the language of chess. That is why you see these 14 year old GMs who have been breast fed on them. Computers are simply more effecient as a learning tool, but there are a handful of very useful books. MCO is one of them.
While it may not have as much information as NCO it is a much easier read and contains enough information about most openings. Specialists will be encouraged to do their own opening research which, unfortunately, is now linked to the middle and even endgame.
Now for the bad. This book has the worst binding of any I have ever come across. My copy fell apart after the first four months and I have a friend who had to get his binded. Considering the cost of this book the publisher certainly took a short cut here and I am convinced that it will cost them much business in the future, as now players have access to databases. I would rather pay extra money to have a more permanent binding.
Secondly, with the information wave flooding the chess arena since the advent of computers, much of the information in this book needs updating. In the old days MCO was released every decade, but now a new version is desperately needed every 4-5 years.
I'll end by stating that pound-for-pound and dollar-for-dollar, MCO is excellent value. Most players have dog-eared copies and I look forward to the next edition but will keep my fingers crossed.
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