These are my top 5 (most of these have already been mentioned):

1. Winning with the Najdorf (D. King):
   Best balance I' ve ever seen in an openings book & made me laugh as well.

2. Mastering the Spanish (P. Ponzetto & D. King):
   I've been also searching for years for Mastering the KID, but with no success..

3. My 60 Memorable Games (B. Fischer):
   OK, not an openings book, however a masterpiece that inspired me to investigate most of the openings I currently play (it is almost unbelievable that some of the annotations back then go deeper than some current opening monographs!).

4. How to play the Sicilian Defence (Levy):
   This is an oldie and the first openings book I read that explained the ideas/plans (in the spirit of the "Mastering the" series). A good introduction to the subject, especially the Chapters on Maroczy Binds, Closed Sicilian & Paulsen. 

5. Leningrad System (S. Kindermann - the English Edition):
   My latest read (it was so good I gave it also to 2 of my clubmates!).

The main reason I didn't mention Horowitz' COTAP (Chess Openings: Theory and Practice) is I agree with the famous and funny criticism that the book gives a player just enough information to get into trouble in the opening.

I suppose that's the problem with just about every single volume opening book.

What does surprise me is that nobody has mentioned the most obvious, groundbreaking opening books of all time.  Of course, that's The Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.  Of course it has numerous flaws, but it has become so ubiquitous that all anyone has to do is say "C89" or "E12" and most connoisseurs will know what variation is being discussed.  That's amazing!

jarih wrote on 11/18/06 at 15:11:08:



Looks to me like it might be aimed more at the beginner level.

While there have been published a couple of good opening books in English last 15 years or so, I agree with Willempie. To all native English speaking chess players: give yourself a treat and buy a German-English dictionary. Pachman's Moderne Schachtheorie is already 25 years old, but still useful for what it aimed for: an excellent overview of opening theory. The Euwe series - both in Dutch and German - are also still good.
And I cannot really imagine someone playing the Alekhine without having the big bible written by Siebenhaar/Delnef and Ottstadt. They have simply everything up to 1989. Imagine, almost 1200 pages on 1.e4 Nf6 !

no one mentioned Chess Openings- Theory & Practice by Horowitz & Reinfeld yet?

Very old book I know. But nothing beats it for sheer coverage. Covers every known opening & variation at the time plus gives new ideas & lines too. No current opening book covers so much in one writing. But certainly there is a shift towards 'specialist' opening books which goes into the main ideas & concepts of the covered opening such as those starting out... & easy guide books which is an excellant step forward. Those old books seem to emphasise more on sheer memorisation, everything else seems to be a mysterious black box!

later edit: perhaps the only rivals to this whole coverage type of opening books are MCO & NCO.

Btw, I too really liked Bellin & Ponzetti's Mastering the King's Indian.

Before I list my favourite opening books I would like to say that the funniest opening book I ever read was Berliner’s ‘The System’.

In no particular order
Starting Out: The King’s Indian – Gallagher
Beating the Sicilian 3 – Nunn and Gallagher
Winning with the Najdorf – King (one of my first opening books)
Accelerated Dragons – Donaldson & Silman
Queens Indian Explained - Wells