The one I have sitting on my bookshelf is Batsford Chess Openings 2 (BCO). I'm thinking about renewing my book collection and was wondering what the best encyclopedia to get was. I love the formatting in BCO2 (the layout is pretty good) but I don't think there was ever a BCO3. I'm more than willing to get ECO (A-E) but i've also heard good things about NCO and MCO. Does anyone have any opinions as to what is best formatting/content etc? All views gratefully received.
Originally posted by JDK2I grew up with Chess Openings: Theory and Practice by Horowitz, which I might have still, had I not passed it on to my nephew. I bought MCO-13 in the mid-1990s and used it extensively, and still use it from time to time. I started acquiring ECO one volume at a time in 1996 for help in serious correspondence play, and also bought a few Informants. My edition of ECO is no longer the latest, but it remains valuable. For the money, the ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia on CD might be worth having (it is about half the price of the five ECO volumes). I use ChessBase more than ECO these days, but still refer to ECO regularly. Within ChessBase, I can quickly gather the latest games in a particular opening (ECO code) and then print the repertoire in ECO style columns--hence my claim that ECO sets the standard.
Thanks for your view Wulebgr. Btw, did you have any of the other beforehand and decide on ECO afterwards as the best?
A number of players have told me that they find the lines and analysis in NCO (Nunn's Chess Openings) superior to that in MCO. My limited use of NCO has given me no reason to contradict their assessment. For $30, NCO may be the best deal.
OK, great, strangely enough, I got chessbase yesterday and have been playing with it last night. It's a pity there looks to be no way to print out the tables section (one of the tabs on the top right).
I will add the ECO's as the next on my list to get. Thanks for the advice.
Kev
Btw, BCO was compiled by Garry Kasparov & Raymond Keene way back in the 90's (1992 i think). £18.95 and covered all the openings in one book. Given the sources listed in the book, it seems to have been compiled from a whole load of other opening specific batsford books.
Thanks. I think I may have been a bit too hasty. I read loads of those T-Notes from Steve Lopez last night and worked out how to do it. I gotta say the software is awesome. And the video manual on the DVD is hillarious 😀
I'll mainly use it after my RHP games to work out where I went wrong. The CBM's are excellent also. Especially for endgame and tactics training.
Kev