Modern chess openings does little in the way of explaining the ideas of the positions.

I've been reading Modern chess openings to better see what can be played, specifically I'm looking at the Vienna Game.

I've figured out how to read the tables, and I can see that the tables also have moves appended, which means I can go over the moves in analysis, and I can also see the attached information.

I was hoping the attached information to mention things like why each move has been played and the ideas that white is attempting, and maybe the ideas with black's refutations.

But instead a lot of the appended information is just a game played between two players in this position, am I supposed to review those games and see the ideas for myself?

Or is it the case I should spend time trying to figure this out for myself? I'm sure I could look at the board and come up with an idea, but whether or not I'm getting the correct idea is something I'm not so sure of, can someone let me know what I should be doing to supplement this book with other books?

I always found The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings by Reuben Fine a useful book.

What is the book like, does it go over general principles to have a better understanding, or is this something that is better understood by looking at openings on an individual bases?

There is a small section on general principles and then it looks at a number of the openings and the principles behind those openings and the moves.

Thank you, I will give this a read

Consider looking for books specifically focused on the Vienna Game. These may provide more in-depth explanations of the ideas behind the moves.

#1, The MCO is more of a general encyclopedia of chess openings. it is best used for identifying openings and variations of openings. it can also be used to quickly get an idea of different branching moves in an opening. any type of analysis or explanation of ideas would be best found in an opening repertoire book in the specific opening or variation. example: i have an opening book that ONLY deals with the Mar del Plata variation of the Classical KID. It is hard to get more specific than that lol.

After some deliberation on Google I came to this answer, thanks for your response, is it safe to say that any major deviation from what is found in MCO variations is likely to be some kind of mistake more often than not?

For example, (I'm working from MCO 14 right now so not the most recent) in the Vienna game, the first table details variations for

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4...

It gives the following moves as possible continuations here: 3. ...Nxe4......Nc6........Bb4.........Bc5

Can I assume here that a move like, d6 or even Be7 is for some reason considered at least not optimal for black? Or is it also just as likely that the book doesn't consider that variation at all, but it's still entirely playable?

I should mention, I'm well aware that I'm totally below my skill level to be studying openings like this, but I am finding it to be fun figuring out how people would go about studying openings, and looking at these books myself.

I am also studying endgames from books that are aimed at my level.

Thanks for your time

Dont play vienna its horrible

Modern Chess Openings in not an instruction book, it is a reference book where you can look up variations. Today, when openings are constantly evolving, and computer databases are readily available, the usefulness of an opening encyclopedia written 5 years ago is dubious