suggestions for opening books

Also is it worth it to play nc3 french?

So nobody knows any books? Wow

Not lines I play from either side, but you might try going to chess publishers, like Gambit and Everyman, and download PDF samples to get a taste of what you'd be getting.

Just look at a games data base and study recent grandmaster games.

indeed. I have tons of chess books but they're outdated and I haven't bought any new ones in decades soo I can't speak to notable contemporary authors or "good" books (these days). Ironically, I'm surprised too that our fellow chess.com friends who are totally knowledgeable in this topic (who puts links, lists etc in the chat~heh, you know who you are!) haven't stopped by yet. Maybe later.

But yeah, I'm sure you can find a YouTube channel that reviews chess books & other related stuff. Or definitely browse through Amazon to get an idea then research it. Other than that, there are good suggestions here.

am not sure which opening books you guys are talking are talking about book repertoires

I haven't written an article on chess openings yet, but if you would like to take a look on books for chess tactics (which I think are also important)
Then here you go!

Unlocking Tactical Excellance

I can answer the French side of your questions.

Thinkers Publishing has a book "Beat the French Defense with 3.Nc3".

That book has a good piece to it and a bad piece.

He goes through extensive coverage of the Steinitz (3...Nf6 4.e5) and I highly recommend that piece, which is about 80% of the book.

However, the Winawer piece is not good. For years they have had a book on beating the French Winawer with 7.h4 queued up, but still has not been published.

When I played 1.e4 as White, this was the exact line I played against the Winawer. Sources on this line are not the greatest at the moment, but I do recommend that first book mentioned for the Steinitz.

Okay thanks! Finally I got some attention on this thread.

@tygxc how do I get free database to study gm games? I don't have 100 bucks to spend on chessbase

@ThrillerFan i got " the wonderful winawer" by Viktor moskalenko. It uses the h4 line.

You can use a program such as SCID for your database needs (Use Google if you want an alternative). Scour the web for free pgn game collections (Try TWIC or use an alternative) and import those files into your database.

I'd recommend Fundamental Chess Openings and as archaic and outdated and dictionary-like as it may seem today - Modern Chess Openings. Modern Chess Openings has little wording, but what it does have is very interesting, even if it's just the essay and after a long variation "and white is better", sometimes is enough. I've heard of other people getting into chess with it even in the modern era, so maybe it's fine. You're hit hard with complexities and variations, but just take it slowly, you really only need to know a few chapters that you are opening with and the others mostly have nice essays. Better to have short but good, general verbal descriptions that you remember than masses and masses of points.

Scid is too complicated for me. i once downloaded a few Twic files and read them using chessbase free pgn reader( which is free). So, tell me the Google way.

Hi

I have that book too.

It is clearly the "least biased" of his French books. The Flexible French, The Even More Flexible French, and The Fully-Fledged Fledged French all have a bit of a Black bias to them.

Great author - just have to watch out for a few of the assessments, but many ideas that do work that most other authors don't mention or mention BARELY as a side note.

I would recommend Ludek Pachman book about the openings.

About "outdated" books : Even some of Alekhine's analysis, where he rate a position as undoubtably winning, are refuted by modern computers (even a cheap one with a free software) and that doesn't mean this analysis is worthless, and in such position, probably anyone but a computer or a very strong player wouldn't find the way to return the situation. Classic books are extremely instructive, even if you don't find fanch modern openings