Rating: 
Summary: Too many things wrong with this book
Review: If you are just beyond the basics, you will not find a better book that focuses on openings than IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS. I use this book to supplement my books in the CHESS FOR JUNIORS series (see my reviews on CHESS FOR JUNIORS & WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS).
What makes this book worthy of 5 stars is that it gives a fair number of important opening lines while doing an excellent job of explaining why the moves are made and the ideas in the openings. This helps you plan and understand what is going on. Memorizing opening lines without understanding the ideas is not going to get you results in games. Therefore, this book is perfect for ages 11+ who are rated approximately 800+ on the USCF rating scale. I like using this book also in conjunction with UNBEATABLE CHESS LESSONS FOR JUNIORS, which provides detailed games broken down by openings.
Unless you are very advanced do not go out and buy a book containing masses of opening variations, without first getting IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS.
Rating: 
Summary: Usefull only for beginners
Review: If you don't know much about opening play than this is certainly a good book for you. Fine outlines the ideas behind some of the chess openings in a nice way. His treatise on 1.e4 e5 and 1.d4 d5 is very good and certainly of use even for the intermediate player but the chapters about some other openings are exceptionally poor (e.g. the Benoni, the Scandinavian and the Pirc to name a few). In addition quite a number of opening lines are rather outdated. This should be your first book on openings, but you'll need some more information from other books to play your openings well.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a must have book
Review: In the late 80's I purchased an electronic chess board from Radio Shack. It beat me over 100 times on the easiest level before I got fed up and decided to find out what I was doing wrong. I purchased "The Idea Behind The Chess Openings" at a mall book store in the hopes that I could understand why I could not beat the computer. Well, 2 years later, that electronic chess board couldn't beat me at it's highest level. I joined the US Chess Federation and began entering tournaments with a confidence level that is directly attributed to the knowledge I gained from this book. Although I am not a master chess player, this book has provided me the tools that will give me the best possible chance to win. And I do. I purchase it for friends and family members who ask me to teach them chess. This book will do more for them then I ever could.
Rating:
Summary: There's better books out there..
Review: It's not that this book is bad - it's just that it's not very good either. Originally written in the 1940's, it has been updated by the author, and is now in third edition. The biggest problem is that there are still many lines which are analyzed in-depth which you simply won't see - and that's not good if you're new to openings. Also, as mentioned in a previous review, the Author discounts some lines, which have undergone a resurgence in recent time, and *are* now used.Having said that, the book has been updated for algebraic notation, and is laid out in a reasonably clear and logical manner. All in all, there are better books out there, Gabor Kallai's Basic Chess Openings, and More Basic Chess Openings are excellent references, and cover all modern openings in detail. They were also written in 1997, which means they cover the sort of lines you will see at club and tournament levels.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to chess openings!
Review: One of the world's best players in the 1930s, Reuben Fine was also one of the great writers of chess as well. Before abruptly quitting chess for a professional career, he wrote several books on the game, however, two really stand above the rest: his classic Basic Chess Endings and the above title. Almost all serious chess players eventually read "Ideas" for one simple reason: Fine explains the concepts and ideas that underlie chess openings in a clear and concise manner. The eight chapters cover all the openings: e4 e5; e4 other; d4 d5; d4 other (Indian systems); English; Bird's/Nimzovich; and Irregular Openings. You won't find the latest lines in this book, rather, Fine presents variations that illustrate basic ideas, e.g., Black has two basic choices after 1. e4 e5: the strong point method or counter attack. The variations used illustrate typical methods of play. The original date of the book, 1943, makes a few of the general conclusions out of date--chess knowledge has progressed--but overall, there is no better introduction to chess opening theory. (A nice companion volume to this is Andy Soltis' Pawn Structure Chess.) The moves are given in figurine algebraic and there is a surprising number of typos, however, none that should cause real confusion. Every beginner should read this from cover to cover before selecting an opening system to play. Once you understand the ideas, tactics, and plans behind a particular system, the current "trendy" variations will make much more sense. This volume really should be in every chess players library.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: The 3rd, and current, edition is so bad. If it's not for Reuben Fine's (name and Basic Chess Ending), it's only good for 1 star. Did Fine really work on this edition or someone else?
The only improvement is the algebraic notation. But the format is not so good and errors are plentiful.
Format: I always prefer the two (narrow) columm page format over the one wide column. (For example: Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster") It helps to focus to the main idea when the sentences are localized to a small area. But this book "The Idea ..." can't use this format. I can never remember the "main" "ideas" of those paragraphs even trying many times. The 2nd ed. is better, it arranges the diagrams side-by-side, it makes it easier for the reader to compare the positions and ideas.
Now, the errors. EX: Diagrams 36B and 36F miss some pawns. And the graphics look aweful, period. Some move sequences in the 2nd ed. having numbers wrong are carried to the 3rd ed.
Now, the consistency. The new ed. uses the chess symbols to represent the pieces within the sentences; many times it uses the old style like B or N. The old ed. used "Defense" and "Center", the new one used "Defence" and "Centre." On page 51, the line 13 from the bottom of the left column, it used "centre"; and right on top of the word, it used "center"!
How do I find these discrepancies? I see the book having some great value, just the format and some errors are bothersome. I'm re-editing it for personal use and updating some new idea. Hope that David McKay Company will review and approve the work... ;-)
Rating:
Summary: 2nd ed. is 5 stars, 3rd is 2 stars !!!
Review: The 3rd, and current, edition is so bad. If it's not for Reuben Fine's (name and Basic Chess Ending), it's only good for 1 star. Did Fine really work on this edition or someone else?
The only improvement is the algebraic notation. But the format is not so good and errors are plentiful.
Format: I always prefer the two (narrow) columm page format over the one wide column. (For example: Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster") It helps to focus to the main idea when the sentences are localized to a small area. But this book "The Idea ..." can't use this format. I can never remember the "main" "ideas" of those paragraphs even trying many times. The 2nd ed. is better, it arranges the diagrams side-by-side, it makes it easier for the reader to compare the positions and ideas.
Now, the errors. EX: Diagrams 36B and 36F miss some pawns. And the graphics look aweful, period. Some move sequences in the 2nd ed. having numbers wrong are carried to the 3rd ed.
Now, the consistency. The new ed. uses the chess symbols to represent the pieces within the sentences; many times it uses the old style like B or N. The old ed. used "Defense" and "Center", the new one used "Defence" and "Centre." On page 51, the line 13 from the bottom of the left column, it used "centre"; and right on top of the word, it used "center"!
How do I find these discrepancies? I see the book having some great value, just the format and some errors are bothersome. I'm re-editing it for personal use and updating some new idea. Hope that David McKay Company will review and approve the work... ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent first step in developing your opening repertoire.
Review: The author reviews all of the major games and many of the obscure and exotic openings. Objectivity is not the order of the day here; he discounts some successful lines and completely writes-off others, but the novice chess player looking to develop an opening repertoire should check this one out.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated ... and wrong on some particulars.
Review: The fact that this book is one of the most recommended chess books around is an inexplicable mystery. The book's approach to the openings is best summed up as simple minded. A particular peeve of mine ... Fine's explanations of the Reti opening are pure guano.
Rating:
Summary: Blunders; Blunders!
Review: The general focus of any chess book is to indoctrinate the novice or the amateur to focus on the King's pawn (Black to play focuses on White's "f7"). I think that all amateur players should be let into the great secret of the modern chess opening--here it is. White to begin and play will usually open with e4 and will naturally be looking to hold the d4 position on the board with its next move. Any book that can't practice or impart this wisdom upon the novice is an utter shambles. This author fails to spill the beans and empower the new kids.
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