Rating: 
Summary: Great commentary on openings
Review: A large book thoroughly full of errors. Lots of pages, I have to give him that. There are tons of great opening lines, with very little focus on any of them. Beginners might find some use for this book not so much to study, but to see the different opening structures, however I don't see any other purpose for this book other than to roll it up in a log and make fire. It seemed the author didn't write this book with much care, which defeat the purpose of writing a book. For beginners I recommend Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan. For stronger players, I suggest Nunn's Chess Opening and Modern Chess Opening-14 which cost about the same but are very thorough and written with care. It is much more accurate, though without moves explain in detail, it does give an accurate analysis of the position after each opening line.
Rating: 
Summary: A large thorough book of opening analysis-good for fire wood
Review: A large book thoroughly full of errors. Lots of pages, I have to give him that. There are tons of great opening lines, with very little focus on any of them. Beginners might find some use for this book not so much to study, but to see the different opening structures, however I don't see any other purpose for this book other than to roll it up in a log and make fire. It seemed the author didn't write this book with much care, which defeat the purpose of writing a book. For beginners I recommend Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan. For stronger players, I suggest Nunn's Chess Opening and Modern Chess Opening-14 which cost about the same but are very thorough and written with care. It is much more accurate, though without moves explain in detail, it does give an accurate analysis of the position after each opening line.
Rating: 
Summary: Large but not comprehensive - buy NCO instead!
Review: A very disappointing book. It has a lot of pages but no opening is covered in anything like real depth.It tries to show how games develop beyond the opening, which is admirable, but often these games proceed way beyond any relevance to the position that came out of the opening and the type of play that is characteristic. There are also enormous gaps in the coverage with no mention of almost all the main lines in openings such as Sicilian Najdorf. These ommissions combined with very poor error checking (in some cases 1. e4 appears when it should be 1.d4) mean this is not a book I'd recommend to anyone. Not because it's THAT bad but there are much better books available. If you want to buy a 'fat' openings book, buy Nunns Chess Openings which is in a totally different class. NCO is very comprehensive, up-to-date and the condensed text which introduces each opening gives a much better overview than Schiller's work. But then NCO is authored by three leading grandmasters, among others ...
Rating: 
Summary: not the first and not the last book you should think off
Review: After reading it almost from the begining to end, I have to say something to balance the stars average on the top of this page. It is a huge work of Mr. Shiller, undoubtelly, but it is the kind of book you should think off just when you are prone to pick openings to make a repertory. Basically the book does not cover variations, it covers a wide variety of opening ideas. Besides, sometimes the games given are quite weird examples of the opening application. So, after you have played some openings and you think its time to make some serious decisions about repertory, pick this one before you get some deep and complicated ones and you should have some insights that would make you feel what openings "fits" you. Not considering the above problems, its a fine book and I don't regret to have it.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Manual on Chess Openings for Novice & Expert
Review: Eric Schiller has really answered the prayers for such a magnificent book on Chess Openings. This book is really excellent as it caters to the needs of different levels of players (especially for novice). It has detailed explanations for the theme behind each major openings & some on the variations. Also, Eric has given some good advice as to what repertoire to employ according to the skill(experience) of the players in question. Especially of interest are the ECO codes found at the back of the book. Books from MCO & NCO does not include such ECO codings. Overall, Eric Schiller has written a very comprehensive & detailed treatise on Modern Chess Openings. It'll surely be the de-facto standard for the serious chess players. It definitely deserves a place in the chess library. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: just a great book for players of level 1100-1700
Review: First book you should buy to learn chess openings. Vast. Well organized. Execllent annotations. Plus, sights into the middlegame of each opening.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting entry into the opening tome market
Review: For those hoping that this new book will fill the void left by the conspicuous delay of BCO3 and MCO14, expect disappointment. For those fans of venerable opening primers like I.A. Horowitz' How to Win in the Chess Openings, Reuben Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings and Ludek Pachman's The Opening Game in Chess, you have found an up-to-date successor. SCO is a huge compendium of benchmark games illustrating typical ("standard"!) themes for Black and White in each of the conventional openings. This is a good single-volume reference for players that are trying to find out what is supposed to happen after the first 10-15 moves have been played. This is not a reference work for postal players or studious over-the-board players looking for the latest theory in multiple lines of an opening. Consider SCO an adjunct to books like BCO2/MCO13 that are long on variations but short on explanations. Amazon's discounted price represents an excellent value -- 800 pages for $20 comes out to 2 1/2 cents per page, an uncommon value in chess books today. My only major criticism is that the text gets pretty crowded and a little difficult to follow at times. After a series of (,{;[,]:}>) etc., it is easy to lose one's place. Though I have not always been a fan of Schiller's books, this one is a good value and one of his stronger efforts.
Rating:
Summary: A nice surprise from Eric Schiller
Review: I am not normally a fan of Mr. Schiller's books (The Big Book of Busts excepted -- it's excellent), but I was pleasantly surprised by SCO. For those of you breathlessly awaiting something, anything, to replace the now ancient BCO2 and MCO13, this is not it. Instead, this more in the spirit of Fine's The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, but on a colossal scale. Instead of lines or columns of moves ending in an evaluation, Schiller follows benchmark games that illustrate the themes and strategies of the openings. This is probably the best way to learn the openings and SCO has the advantage over Fine's book in being more recent and much more thorough. Those looking for the new MCO or BCO are out of luck, but those looking to learn about the openings could do far worse. Additionally, this is an outstanding value at 2 1/2 cents per page.
Rating:
Summary: Great commentary on openings
Review: I am thoroughly enjoying this book. It has lots of good analysis and illustrative games, but I especially enjoy his commentary on openings. He constantly says whether an opening is used by conservative players, aggeressive players, world champions, etc. He adds helpful editoril comments that are greatly helpful in determining whether I wish to further explore a certain opening. FInally, the book is well-made on excellent papaer and a great binding.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I consider myself an average chess player, that is I play at what I estimate to be 1400 - 1600 ELO. I do not consider myself an expert an eny opening, but am comfortable with a couple of openings mainly the Roy Lopez, Guico Piano, and QP openings.
I was hoping that his book would help me learn the basics of some more openings, the way that Chernev's Logical Chess helped me with the QP openings. This book was a complete disapointment, I didn't learn a thing from it. The main problems I had with it were the lack of explanation to each opening and the basic format. The basic format of the book is to take one game and use this game to show the main variations in the opening. I found that this made it hard to use.
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