anyone recommend a good book for openings?

thank you!

depends on your level.
If your an advanced beginner, yassars seirawan books are good. he has one on openings.
If you below 1600 or so (uscf rating) then dont bother with openings, study endgames and tactics. Then you will understand openings better 🙂

Originally posted by murrow
thank you!

I like the slim two-volume set called Basic Chess Openings by Gabor Kallai. Not only gives the reasons behind the moves, it also shows those little traps players are prone to fall into. Cadogam is the publisher. You can pick them up in the bookstore or on the web. I don't recommend books with move lists unless you're really advanced.

the "starting out" series is pretty good for any type of player (i recommend it for beginners to intermediate players.) most of the books are on openings (some are on tactics) and give the main idea and main lines of play for that specific opening.

Originally posted by skeeter

MCO Edition 14. Best of the best available. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3 .

skeeter

And the rest is history.

'Basic Chess Openings' is highly recommended (thanks for the original advice buddy2 and others); it gives a good explanation of some the basic principles in each opening.