I haven't gotten an opening book for a long time and I don't have anything that is less than 10 years old.  I am thinking of buying a single volume opening reference.  The landscape of the openings is a lot different nowadays with computers being so strong. 

Anyone care to share their advice on what book is best? 

Fundamental Chess Openings by Van der Sterren? It's a large tome, full of instructive explanation on all the openings. Not so much analysis.

Opening reference works (with tables and tables full of moves) aren't really being made anymore. Amateur players don't need them, they need to understand ideas rather than learn lines by rote. Serious players have databases and engines. Well, there is MCO-15, but it got bad reviews.

What is you're rating level? If you're less than master level, 10 year old references will still be more than adequate.

Are you looking for a collection of opening lines like MCO or are you looking for a single volume text that tries to broadly explain the main opening themes and ideas like Baseman's book?

Erik, This one is surprisingly good: http://blog.chess.com/farbror/paddy-patzers-pile-of-books-chess-openings-for-kids

It lacks in depth of course but is is excellent for inspiration and a quick glimpse into nre openings

The giant single-volume MCO type books are pretty much obsolete, except for hardcore traditionalists.  Freely-available GM databases have made them redundant, without a fraction of the convenience.

A really good annotated opening monograph with clear explanations of plans, strategies, piece placements, and tactical motifs remains as valuable as ever, and with computer analysis easily availble to all authors, the accuracy of modern opening books has never been better.

But then, the usefulness of any such book obviously depends on what particular opening you want to study.

"Fundamental Chess Openings" by Paul van der Sterren is an excellent one-volume reference. Fro less experirnced players, Yasser Seirewan's "Winning Chess Openings" is a great place to start

Thanks, my US rating is 2000 and I definitely know my way around the databases. 

There's something about being able to open up a book and page through the columns.  I have NCO and MCO as well as BCO and a bunch of old ECO volumes but nothing that's up to date. 

I will look at some of the books that have been mentioned, and I'm still interested to hear other opinions on the subject. 

Erik

One more vote for "Fundamental Chess Openings" by Paul van der Sterren.

+1

FCO is not what he's looking for if he wants tabulated lines.

I'd look at the one the small ECO for that. NCO hasn't been updated in forever, and besides the MCO I am not aware of any others that just have the tabulated lines.

Since you already have BCO, ECO, MCO & NCO (me too) it sounds like you either need specialized books and/or monographs on your pet openings and/or ChessBase Premium (not Lite) with a BIG DB, not necessarily the latest one if  you are willing to update older versions with DBs available from TWIC (most important), here, LSS, ICCF etc. Look around for used copies of CB 8, 9 or 10 at amazon, eBay and various chess sites. I'm using CB9 with BIG DB 2011 and I rarely look at my opening books anymore, although they are handy for the opinions and evaluations of IMs & GMs assuming they contain the lines showing up in my games.

Thanks to everyone. 

I use and prefer Linux so many of the databases out there won't work on my system.  I am thinking of writing one, but who has the time? 

Scid works great on Linux! http://scid.sf.net

 @erixoltan  you could use a windows emulator under Linux couldn't you?  I considered switching to Linux and found that a big problem with the emulators was choosing one out of so many available

I have a VMWARE machine for my chess programs. It works great and allows me to use the best tool for the job when it comes to chess programs.

I can always dual boot into Windows if I want to use Windows-only software like that. 

I am noticing that scid is pretty good and you can use it with Stockfish which is a very strong program, or Crafty if you prefer. 

I still think I may write my own chess db when I get the time :). 

My favorite has been I.A. Horowitz's "Chess Openings: Theory and Practice". I bought my first copy over thirty years ago and I still read it today.

Many have said that this is not the best opening book, but I have found some old and interesting lines in it.

this isnt a bbok but if you try on big database 2009 you will find opening surveys from chessbase magazine with anotations and great depth as far as analysis goes