The major content of the book is the tables and notes of chess variations. The chapter introductions give an overview of the strategic concepts and some historical information. The book is divided into five sections of major openings groups, each section containing chapters of the specific openings (or major variations of the openings). The book seeks to give the reader a clear and concise presentation of whichever chess opening he (she) chooses, using the simple algebraic chess notation. Any inconvenience is apologized for.-Excerpt from the "Introduction"-"Modern Chess Openings" (MCO) has been the standard English language work on chess openings for almost a century, each new edition presenting the latest strategies. – American Chess Correspondent, writing about the tenth edition.This classic edition MCO covers an important turning point in the era of chess - the introduction of the popular use of the internet, the use of databases, and their effects on chess openings and use by GM's.This rendition is best suited to large screens or book readers with landscape/panorama views, as the scans cover two pages at once in order to reduce total file size. the most important single book in world chess literature". CollinsĬompletely revised by Larry Evans under the editorship of Walter Korn SergeantĮdited and completely revised by Walter KornĬompletely revised by Walter Korn and John W. White, completely revised by Walter Korn under the editorship of R. White, completely revised by Reuben Fine, R. 13 in almost every respect" and comparable in quality to NCO. John Watson wrote that MCO-13 "really isn't up to modern expectations", but called MCO-14 "a vast improvement over its predecessor No. Since 1980, there have been other one-volume opening encyclopedias to rival MCO: Batsford Chess Openings ( BCO) in 19, Nunn's Chess Openings ( NCO) in 1999, and Paul van der Sterren's Fundamental Chess Openings in 2009.
As Practical Chess Openings was not revised in any further editions, MCO remained the most popular English language opening reference. Fine was not able to work on subsequent editions of MCO, so in 1948 he wrote Practical Chess Openings. In 1939, Reuben Fine, who had won the AVRO tournament the year before, edited MCO. Sergeant and Maurice Edward Goldstein providing revisions starting with the fourth edition in 1925. Editions through at least 1946 continued to be attributed to Griffith and White, with P. The first three editions (1911, 1913, and 1916) were the work of Griffith (who won the 1912 British Championship) and White, with an introduction by Henry Ernest Atkins.
In 1977, Harry Golombek said "The work became popular at once and for over forty years was regarded as the main book on the openings throughout the world."
Early editions were small enough to fit in a pocket (the first edition was 190 pages), but later editions grew and the fifteenth and most recent version is 768 pages.
MCO was popular with English-speaking players and has continued to be updated throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, with fifteen editions from 1911 through 2008. Although Bilguer's Handbuch des Schachspiels was more authoritative at the time MCO was first published, it was last published between 19, and was becoming outdated by the 1930s.