Concise Chess Openings

This is a book well suited for a beginner who just wants a general idea of what the major chess openings are. It is certainly not "concise". If you are a beginner and want to look into the various openings and want some very general ideas and not a lot of tedious variations, then this is a good book. Though I like the more detailed book of this same nature, "Understanding The Chess Openings" by Collins, and would recommend to gain a grasp of opening tactcis getting a book on opening traps - a book on opening traps will give you a good idea of the strong points and pitfalls within the openings.

Este libro a pesar de su tamaño, contiene valiosa información para quien desee saber mas acerca de aperturas de ajedrez. Por supuesto, deja muchas líneas sin cubrir, pero ello debido a su objetivo de ser una guía rápida, fantástica para el principiante. Sugiero que si quedan dudas acerca de alguna línea, se consulten otras fuentes (libros, programas de ajedrez, bases de datos), y se pregunte a personas con mayor conociemiento de estas líneas. Es interesante que este libro sea valioso por ello, pues provoca curiosidad por saber más de cierta línea y motiva la investigación.

This is an interesting book. It gives you the ideas of the openings, much more so than theory-laden books, and it is also quite small. The detail here is not great, but it's certainly an interesting book.My problem is what is it useful for. I can only guess based on its physical size that you are intended to take it with you to tournaments to help review your games when they are over, but yet the detail of the game is not really sufficient, and nco or mco seem like they would be better suited for this task.

This is an excellent book, suitable for people that need an introduction to the major openings, but don't want as yet to invest the amount of time necessary to learn any opening thoroughly.This book is going to take the place of Znosko-Borovsky's "How to Play the Chess Openings" (which was written in the '30s), and Fine's "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings" (from the '40s) as a summary overview to all the major chess openings. The advantage of McDonald's book is that it is really up to date (it includes moves from games played up to 2001). Unlike the two older books, Concise Chess Openings does not include a section on the principles behind the chess openings (e.g. develop light pieces before heavy ones, don't move a piece twice in the opening without good reason, etc.); however, since such "principles" are to be found in most beginners' chess books, one does not miss them in McDonald's book. (An excellent feature of the book is that it indicates very clearly what White's and Black's plan are for each opening or major variation.)The only reason I did not give the book five stars is the price, which is really high for such a small book (smaller than a mass-market paperback).