Whats a good opening book that has alot of openings in that book?

MCO

BCO

NCO or ECO

And I doubt all the abbreviations help that much.  MCO-Modern Chess Openings, the oldest of the bunch, now on edition 14, I believe. I have MCO-11 which works fine as a basic reference. BCO-Batsford Chess Openings, NCO-Nunn's Chess Openings.  ECO-Encyclopedia of Chess Openings 5 volumes, most definitive of the group.  Chess databases are very popular for this as well.

FCO! Perfect for non-masters!

It depends on if you want Opening references or want to learn the ideas behind the openings.

John Watsons series "Mastering the Chess openings" is a good one if you are interested in learning the openings, pawnformations and ideas that follow with the various openings.

The MCO / NCO books are basically just tables of moves; very little explanation in them (one page of introduction text per opening; similar to what you can find on Wikipedia). I think these books are obsolete now that you can just download a database.

Get the Watson books, or the Chess Opening Essentials books, or Winning Chess Openings, etc. Or a repertoire book like those Chess Openings for White: Explained books.

Of all these, I only own NCO (it's been gathering dust for years). I have Cox's Starting Out: 1.d4!, but I wouldn't advise anyone to actually take up the entirety of the repertoire he proposes, unless you're a top GM.

Dear friend,

 It should be John Watson series.

'It should be John Watson series'.

exactly what I was going to type!

I avoid mentioning series as the gentleman requested a book.  If you are looking for a book that covers most openings you are looking at BCO, NCO, MCO, ECO and the last isn't just one book.  As for the fact they are tables of moves the same charge can be laid against a database.

Of course, but you can keep a database up to date, and you can download one for free.

These 3 vols cover all the main openings and are often said to be clearest for the novice/intermediate player:

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Opening-Essentials-Openings-Complete/dp/9056912038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258144160&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Opening-Essentials-1-d4-d5-1-d4-various/dp/9056912690/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258144160&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Opening-Essentials-Indian-Defences/dp/9056912704/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258144160&sr=1-3

The type and diagrams are very clear, and the books make excellent use of colours.

This single volume is another highly-esteemed book:

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Openings-Sam-Collins/dp/190460028X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258144296&sr=1-4

Thanks guys!

I have decided to buy the "Mastering the chess openings" series..

as it looks good, thank you all for your suggestions

But databases are only based on the most popular moves, right? Sometimes I try to use the game explorer to learn what you're supposed to play but it can be confusing. You don't know which move is actually best lots of times, because for example there could be this unpopular move that scores really well but when you go one move further it looks instead bad if white or black plays a certain move that in practical play was missed in many games. I think (not sure though) that MCO is actual opening theory of reasonable length by strong players aided by computer analysis. It's good in the sense that it covers every opening in one book and can be convenient if you don't have a specific opening book.

I've been looking at chess opening books for about a month now in various book stores in New York City, including the chess shops on Thompson St, to get a full sense of what's out there.  I've gone back and forth from there to the internet to see what people are saying and fine tuning how I'm looking at them and all that.

I have to agree with chessoholicalien on the Chess Opening Essentials series.  Even if the originator of this thread is asking for a single book. 

I have the following openings reference books: Chess Openings: Theory and Practice by I.A. Horowitz, MCO 13 by DiFirman (after Korn), and SCO by Eric Schiller.  Since I'm coming back to actively playing chess, I want to update what I'm refering too.  My favorite book of all my chess books is the Horowitz book, and when I got it as a kid I saw it as a kind of bible.  What?  No, not antiquated and irrelevant, that's might be how many see it now though.  The Horowitz book I mean.

Anyway, that book was out of date when I bought it, and by the time I realized that as an adult, everyone was talking about MCO or ECO.  So I picked up MCO and I don't like that kind of book.  It is long on tables and short on ideas.  You have to bounce back and forth from the text about the opening to the lines you're reading up on and you really only get generalized text.  The Horowitz was full of ideas and real world examples.  From what I read in an interview, that was what Shiller was going for in his book.  Enough has been said about Schiller on these forums, but in any event I don't love that book either.

The Chess Opening Essentials series, published by New In Chess and written by Stefan Djuric, Dimitri Komarov, and Claudio Pantaleoni might be 3 books (OK, it IS 3 books), and thus carrying a hefty price tag, but it explains itself in no uncertain tems. 

There may be other books that explain the material equally, but the explainations in this series are greatly enhanced by how the material is presented.  The books are in color.  The color is used judiciously and the colors chosen are easy on the eyes and your eyes are drawn right to the info you need.  the material is organized on the pages well.  While wasting no space on the page, the columns and games are well presented visually.  A lot of effort went into not just what to present but how to present it.  Turns out, that matters greatly.  The books are simply superior to their competition.  You'll assimilate the material faster and more thoroughly because it's presented in a way that will get into your brain faster.

I haven't picked up the books yet.  But I've spent plenty of time obessessing over every book I could in the aisles of books stores comparing and contrasting and looking for missed lines-- by that I mean seeing if one covered something the others didn't, and seeing how the handled transpositions.  I see nothing "missing" from these books when compared to the other multi volume sets or the single volume reference books, in terms of information.

So if someone reads this (long) post and concludes, this is a guy recommeding a book he ain't even bought yet: fair enough.  In my defense I'll say I poured over these pretty intensely over a long time with copies in my hands because I'm not buying another opening reference manual after this time around.  If I wasn't knocked out by a book, I'd stick with the Horowitz.  These books from New In Chess blow my mind.

Edited: I picked up the 3 volumes (the 4th covering 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 and other less common moves is not out yet).  Yeah, they're good.  Working through openings I think I know well show what limitations are on such volumes, but for the thumbnail sketch of what's going on, these are real clear books that present themslves well.