Rating: 
Summary: Not for the aspiring Master
Review: Almost every master you encounter will tell you that a key part of being a master is to be comfortable with MODERN chess opening theory. Without this, the game is lost before it even begins. The problem with "The Ideas Behind Chess Openings" is that it does no coenside with current chess opening theory. Although Fine does carefully go through each opening as so you can easily understand it, what he is teaching you cannot match what is thought of today. Yes, it is fun to read, but it's junk food. If you are having trouble understanding exactly what an opening is for, and what you want to accomplish in it, then read this book. But if you are looking for a way to come up with new and improved openings, do not buy this book. [This book is for beginners, so I cannot express the ELO gain it gives.]
Rating:
Summary: Buyer Beware. I really did not like it
Review: Although I realize a lot of people think highly of this book, I really did not like it or find it useful. This was one of the first three books on chess that I ever bought. (That was 20 years ago; I now have about 30). I found it to be useless then and I have picked it up a few times since then and still don't find it to be useful. For the life of me I don't see where the IDEAS are that this book is named for. I see dozens of opening lines with very little in the way of explanation about the IDEAS behind the opening(s). I found Horowitz's How to Win in the Chess Openings a lot more useful in that regard--explaining the IDEAS behind the chess openings. (Although Horowitz's book is no panacea either). If you are starting out, I'd suggest thinking twice on this one. Maybe check it out at the library and if you like it, then think about buying it.
Rating: 
Summary: The best first opening book you should get
Review: Before you go out and buy an opening book that is loaded with variations you should gain an understanding of the ideas behind the moves.
This book covers the most important openings and gives you the "why" behind the variations. Certainly when this is done there cannot be a lot of opening lines covered. But this is understandable, and not a fault with the book.
The book is easy to understand and very worthwhile to get.
Rating: 
Summary: Still informative after all these years
Review: Bobby Fischer, when asked by a young boy how to improve the boy's chess, picked up a copy of "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings," and advised the boy to "read this book. This book has everything. It's one of the best chess books, and can definitely help to improve your game." Whenever the legendary Fischer speaks of how to improve one's chess, I have just a word of advice: Listen. In comparing the 1943 edition of this book to the more recent 1989/90 works, it appears that most of the revisions involve the Indian and Sicilian Defenses. For good reason: These are still the overwhelming choices of many an international grandmaster to 1 d4 and 1 e4, respectively. Other than that, the text is about the same. In fact, the more recent editions even have a few misspellings and caption-reference errors to boot. Still, I think that's a trivial reason for chess players to shy away from this book. The title states the principle: As long as you understand the IDEAS of the openings you play, you will be ready for nearly any surprises--curve balls, if I may--that your opponent might have in store. It made sense in 1943; it still makes sense today. I would recommend this book to those in the beginner-to-intermediate range. I believe that, once you understand the ideas of your preferred openings, then and only then should you begin to intensify your studies of opening theory. After that, I feel that everything will fall into place naturally.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Basic and Instructional Openings Book
Review: Every player who aspires to have a systematic understanding of the openings must start with Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings. As a beginner before, I used to play grandmaster games on chessbooks, magazines and memorize the first ten to fifteen moves without knowing the underlying ideas behind the openings. I could thus play booklines, but I didn't really know what the opening was all about. When my oppponent deviated from my memorized lines, I didn't know how to continue. Then I read this book and I realized that you don't need to memorize very long variations to play the opening sensibly. Rather, the openings must be understood as a system, which entails knowing what white's or black's aims are in in a given opening. I learned, for example, that in the Sicilian defense white strives for a kingside attack while black counters in the queenside. In the King's Indian, on the other hand, black goes for a kingside attack while white, for a queenside breakthrough. I drastically improved my performance, and I won games not by tediously memorizing opening lines, but by designing my play consistent with the peculirities and the patterns in the different openings. I knew the proper continuation when my opponent had deviated from my book, or when the variation I studied had ended. Only after one has exhaustively studied this classic book must he explore more detailed and lengthy openings book like Modern Chess Openings and Nunn's Chess Openings. In fact, anyone can hardly get substantial information from those two books, or from any opening encyclopedia for that matter, without Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a Starting Point of Opening Study
Review: Fine presents alot of information in this book. He covers the main lines for the majority of openings a player will run across. However, reading this book is like reading a dictionary, line after line of moves with little (but informative) annotation. Don't read this book if you want to learn certain openings or how to defend lines. This book is for a general picture of modern openings and why they exist. From this book you can see what openings fit your style of play and the reader can then seek out other books on the lines that he wishes to play. Also, it gives a picture of how to deal with openings the reader doesn't know. 4 stars for the informative, but boring/dry writing, but it loses a star for the many many many notation errors in the book. It's very annoying, however, the reader can usually figure out what the intended move is, but still, isn't there an editor for this book?
Rating:
Summary: A book that delivers exactly what it promises
Review: Have you ever wonder why a certain grand master played something you just couldn't understand? Well this book makes everything clear. Whith very simple language it explains what are boths sides objectives in each of the most usual opennings, so the moves become more clear. You won't become an expert in any of the opennings shown, but you'll know what to do when someone plays something confusing. There are a few typos, but nothing that can't be figured out. A must have for anybody who's just starting to build an openning repertoire.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe even 3 stars is too much!
Review: I bought this book thinking that it will help me understand the ideas behind the chess openings. One of the few things I understood from this book is that there has to be a better book on openings.
This book is very boring, and can put you to sleep easily. Maybe I'm even more of a beginner than I thought but this book is full of long lines that need to be memorized. The only difference from other opening books is the verbal explenations which are not that good. It doesn't have as many typos as stated in some reviews but some of them are pretty confusing.
About the ideas behind the openings I can give this example: In one of the openings the auther explains that the main goal is to keep the pawn on e4, but how is that helpful if I don't know why a pawn on e4 is a good thing to have. So this book is not for real beginners, It's more for advanced beginners and intermediates.
Don't get me wrong, this book will help you with your opening play, but why should someone learn the openings in the hardest possible way?! So if you don't care about writing style, or need a sleeping pill, this is the book for you. But if you need something that is comprehensive and fun and also very easy to learn from, I suggest you buy a different book.
Rating:
Summary: After All, It's Better to Understand than to Memorize
Review: I completed this book around late 1998. I have to say I got a lot out of it, but I was progressing through it at THE WORST possible time in my chess development; when I had just started playing in USCF tournaments. It was a bittersweet experience because I was enjoying learning a great amount of openings, but, at the time, my knowledge of the middlegame, and especially the endgame had yet to begin. My opponents said they were impressed with my opening play, but that means nothing when you can't understand the obvious aspects of the middlegame and can't close the deal and win the game in the middlegame or in the endgame.
Fine explains early in the book that you can't memorize variation upon variation for each opening. Some players are good at memorizing long lines of variations, but overall it is much better to understand the ideas behind the chess openings. You must understand what openings are going to lead to an open game or to a closed game, etc.
Fine shows that there's an idea for playing each opening and once you approach learning all openings with that thought in mind you can do better right from the beginning of the game.
But, I would suggest that no one make the same mistake I did; that is, reading this book as you embark on tournament life while not being well versed AND experienced in the middlegame AND the endgame.
You can at least read this after you fully understand middlegame principles.
I also have the very popular Nunn's Chess Openings. You should understand this one thing: Nunn's Chess Openings, the Modern Chess Openings and other "telephone book"-sized chess books are touted for there current lines and diversity of variations of opening play. The MCO, for instance, is like the world almanac in that it will most likely continue to have updated editions to be published. All this to say that Fine's book is often criticized as being a poor openings book because it was copyrighted back in approximately 1954 and all the openings in it are thus outdated by today's playing standards. But, Fine is more interested in stressing the importance of understanding the Idea; those other books don't do this as well as Fine did all those years ago. Understanding the idea will stay with you much longer than memorizing a multitude of possible lines. As I have found out, you can spend all month studying an opening and never see it in an upcoming tournament. But, the thing is, you will see it when you haven't been studying it! Understand it's idea and you'll still have a good handle on the situation.
Rating:
Summary: Indespensible to the beginning serious player
Review: I don't know if some of the lines in this book are outdated, and some important lines are absent; but it doesn't matter much. This book does not attempt to be a comprehensive bible of openings. It is exactly what the title says, the IDEAS behind the openings. It teaches the beginner WHY the opening moves are made, not just what they are. With these concepts in mind, the new player can start developing his own tactics based on sound premises. This book is mandatory reading for beginners.
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