Nunn's Chess Openings

Rating:
Summary: NCO is for everyone
Review: After reading the few reviews, I think that it is not an important issue whether this book is too advanced for novice and club players and only suitable for the serious and professional player. The lines given in this book gives a very good overview of the typical lines and even less well known lines played in the recent years. Just think of it as a good summary of MegaBase from ChessBase.

Bobby Fischer once remarked to a casual player that to improve, one would first pick up a book (which incidently was Modern Chess Openings) and play the moves and the footnotes at least twice from cover to cover. Although this sounds extreme, the point to note is that before a player can even decide on an opening or what the varied openings are like, it is important to have a good idea of what are the typical and nontypical lines that are played nowadays across all openings. One can gain opening ideas from words (such as Fine's Basic chess openings or even Modern Chess Openings). However, this method only provide a superficial coverage of any opening. A more accurate way is to look precisely at the variations involved in each opening and decide FOR YOURSELF which lines are advantageous or not. Bronstein once remarked that many of the past books on openings that stated equality for black is often an understatement that Black has already gain a substantial advantage - meaning that only YOU can decide whether when you attempt a certain variation: Are you just following the crowd or are you thinking by yourself. No doubt, the workload in preparing for your openings will be heavy. The task then is to narrow these openings into a suitable repertoire for yourself (as a function of your style, endgame preferences, etc).

Of course, it helps if you have a chess teacher to do this for you. If not, you can simply follow Fischer's advice and do what many chessplayers are doing nowadays - teaching yourself to improve.

Rating:
Summary: The best opening book for intermediate to advanced players
Review: Excellent authors (three experienced grandmasters, among others) who put the effort into this book make it a 'must have'.

Not for the beginner but better than many other of the weighty opening texts.

Rating:
Summary: So much information, there's no room for words!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Nunn's nothing
Review: I am an 1189 player who believes that Nunn's Chess Openings is worth nothing more than a paperweight. In volume two can we have some evaluation please? I found myself after move 14 ahead according to Nunn but didn't know why or where to move next.

Rating:
Summary: A great reference for intermediate players and up.
Review: 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).

Rating:
Summary: Makes a Good Openings Reference Book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Nunnskull Awful Book...
Review: I got this book thinking it would actually have something useful within it... Basically this is just a big book that is a waste of money... Many lines are all ready out dated, also he does not even cover certain openings... Many of which are seen more times than people realize... The layout of the book is awful at best... The way you look up the lines and other things is badly setup... The gaps in coverage come very early and you realize you wasted your $$$... If this is an attempt of having all openings in one book... It is a bad failure to say the very least... Since this book I have decided to never ever buy a book from Nunn again... He is one of the most over rated chess authors to ever hit the scene... Also as a player he is nothing special to say the very least... Him and his team of Batsford bandits ripped off Fischer's book... They had to change his words enough so he couldnt sue, so they made him say whilst and many other misnomers... I try to never buy any batsford books cuz many are sub par besides that point... Basically if you want a book to beat someone with... This is a great one for that, if you wanna win at chess, this wont help much... People can say all they want about this or that, basically this book has no real value... Anyone that would tell someone to get this book, should be drowned at birth... Basically there are much better chess books to spend your money on... Id advice MCO if you need an opening book such as this... Perhaps if the layout of the book and coverage was better... Instead its not much more than data dumps from computers and some lines from games... This book will not make you a better player... IF you wanna spend money on books try stuff like Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tal his life and games, Art of the Middlegame, etc... Maybe when this book came out it had some use... Right now its just a relic and should be cast aside... Sorta like when people put their parent in a nursing home... Well think of it as Nursinghome Chess Openings and dont waste the money... If your reading this review its a sign this book isnt for you... If your "advanced" as people try to cling to... Then you will just get the book you wont read reviews... Sadly you will find out hard way how awful this book is :)...

Rating:
Summary: Nunn better
Review: I love GM Nunn's last name and most of my reviews have included a play on it but that shouldn't and doesn't take away from his sheer brilliance as an author; he has gone and 'dood' it again with this excellent compilation of modern Chess openings along with the authors' evaluations. Not for beginners.

Rating:
Summary: OK OK
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Way too much depth for any mere mortal
Review: 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.