Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

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  • Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

    I came upon this chess publication auction site, and it appears that bidding for most items ends today (Thursday):

    http://www.chesslund.com/storecatalog.asp?userid=5

    All seem to be rare and obscure publications, so I don't think they are in competition with Larry.
    The bid for 1957-58 "Chess Chat" is now at 180 euros. :-)

  • #2
    Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

    Canadian Chess Chat on the Lund Auctions

    September 10, 2015

    The Chess Academy in Lund, a neighbouring town of Malmo, in Southern Sweden has chess book auctions three or four times a year to support young chess talents. As an aside, it looks like you could take the Oresund Bridge to get from Copenhagen to Malmo.

    It is an auction site much like eBay, but not as sophisticated. In July I had the shock of my life when I posted a bid. I had forgotten that the Swedish system is to put the comma after the number of dollars instead of a period. So, wanting to have a maximum bid initially of $22, I typed in 22.00 into the bid box. The site said something like “You have bid $22,000”. Of course, I scrubbed that and was so shocked, I left the site for five minutes to catch my breath.

    The two presiding men behind the auctions appear to be Calle Erlandson and Per Skjoldager. They are collectors and I have had lunch in Toronto with both. I think they both collect chess periodicals, which is an enormous undertaking when you consider that just two, the British Chess Magazine and Deutsche Schachzeitung have runs from 1881 to present and 1846-1988 (with some interruptions), respectively.

    Per Skjoldager is an IT contractor, chess historian and chess book collector living in Fredericia, Denmark. He is the co-author (with Jørn Erik Nielsen) of that splendid biography of Aron Nimzowitsch – On the Road to Chess Mastery, 1886 – 1924.
    _______

    Anyway, today, September 10, 2015, there was an auction and one of the items up for sale was this:

    Canadian Chess Chat, new series vol. 1-2, 1957-1958

    Editor: Abe Yanovsky, New series volume 1, No. 1-12, 1957 and volume 2, no. 1-10, 1958 complete. Each issue about 16 pages A4 duplicated. Bound together in brown cloth with gold print on spine.

    The starting bid was 25 euro or $35.30 Canadian.

    It happens that Canadian Chess Chat is a very desirable periodical to own. Even the biggest libraries don’t have a complete run from 1947 to 1992.

    I have 1957-58 and so was able to sit back and watch the bidding. The Lund site (or LSAK) appears to not like sniping. That is, a bid entered in the last few seconds, when there is no time for others to bid. It appears that after the last bids, an increment of three minutes was added to the end of auction time.

    When the smoke had cleared, the hammer price was 450 euros, with a Canadian equivalent of $635.40. The house usually tacks on the shipping and an auctioneer’s fee. There was a total of 21 bids.
    ________

    I have felt for some time that a .pdf of Canadian Chess Chat from 1947 to 1975 should be made available on DVD for Canadian collectors and historians. I am intending to purchase a special semi-automatic scanner for the purpose but at the moment lack CCCs 1947-1951. There is also the copyright consideration. Although there would be no charge for the DVDs, the copyright owner would certainly object. Any thoughts on this?

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    • #3
      Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

      I don't see any copyright notice in "Chess Chat" - nor in any other Canadian chess magazines in which I looked. "Echec+" mentions that permission from the editor is needed to reproduce anything from the magazine.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

        Interesting auction of obscure chess publications..

        October 13, 2015

        It is a sad fact of life that when you pass on, your possessions will be dispersed.

        The incident that brought this to mind is the appearance at auction of a couple of items that belonged to Walter Browne. He died on June 24, 2015.

        One is a copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s The Defence with “Property of Walter Browne” written on half-title page. The starting bid is USD 15.00

        The second is an unbound year of Chess Life 2012 with his name and address typed in. If there are any notes written in, they are Walter’s. The starting bid is USD 12.00

        The third is a typed letter to Walter Browne written and signed by Bent Larsen, date June 19th 1978. The letter is regarding the Las Palmas bulletin. Assumes Walter is winning the US championship. Envelope with Browne's address typed included. Starting bid USD 10.00

        You would have to also pay postage on any item won and it could be as much as USD 20, for first class. The auction is on right now and ends on the 24th.

        http://www.chesslund.com/detail.asp?...--The-Defense-

        http://www.chesslund.com/detail.asp?...Brownes-copies

        http://www.chesslund.com/detail.asp?...-signed-Larsen

        I would assume that the Larsen letter could be gotten for less than $100 but that is just a guess.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

          Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

          October 18, 2015

          Today, a business card signed by Alekhine went for 472.77 Euros ($667.55 CND)

          The description:

          Alexander Aljechin
          signed card
          simul in Czech town Prerov Feb 9, 1943


          Size 13 x 9 cm
          Card signed by A. A. Alekhine, from the simul in town Prerov Feb 9, 1943.

          Good to very good: light general signs of use. The card has light crease, which is almost not visible on the front side).
          The card has handwritten name of one of Aljechin’s opponents, Zdenek Skala and preprinted text, which means in English:

          Skala Zdenek / fought in the simultaneous production with the world chess champion / Dr. A. A. Aljechin / in Prerov 9th February, 1943

          The card is signed by Alekhine at the bottom.

          ________

          Earlier this year the following was won for 400 Euros (564.80 CND)

          Alexander Aljechin – signed book
          Meine besten Partien (1908-1923)
          Berlin/Leipzig 1929
          Signed by Alekhine on title 11.02.1943


          Note from seller : On Feb 11, 1943, Alekhine played a simul in the town Kromeriz, CZ

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          • #6
            Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

            Interesting auction of obscure chess publications..

            October 24, 2015

            The auction is finished on the three items that belonged to Walter Browne.

            The book from Browne’s library went unsold at $15 US as did the loose Chess Life’s at $12 US.

            The typed letter with envelope to Walter Browne, signed by Larsen, got $211.00 US (275 CND). There were 14 bids.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Interesting auction of obscure chess publications....

              Interesting auction of obscure chess publications..

              March 1, 2016

              On the Lund Chess Auction site there is an unique item – time graphs by David Bronstein. The auction doesn’t take place until September but it is worth viewing at:

              http://www.chesslund.com/detail.asp?...avid-Bronstein

              Description: On the occasion of his 70th birthday, David Bronstein wrote:

              Chess on the highest level is not only a board game. It is much more. It is part of human civilization. Both Dr Emanuel Lasker and Dr Max Euwe have described chess mainly as a fight. Also, it is interesting to study how a man thinks during a game of chess. I think that I made a substantial contribution to chess science when I started to take note of the times taken for each move by both players. I think that I have cemented a few bricks in the house of chess psychology by creating the phenomenon of time graphs. If interpreted correctly, they give tremendous insight into the human character. Further I believe that my work as a journalist is as important as my games. Finally I am proud of the fact that I am not known for fights off the chessboard but only on it.

              On offer are sixteen of these Time Graphs: approximately A3-sized papers containing a hand-drawn coloured graph of time use in games of famous players such as Botwinnik, Petrosjan, Larsen, and of course Bronstein himself. Two of them also include Bronstein's original score sheet showing the time used for each move.

              Note: the images show only part of each paper due to constraints imposed by the size of my scanner.

              Additional information and images available on request.
              ______

              You can buy it now for 2500 euros ($3573 Can) if you are a collector with deep pockets, a passion for David Bronstein and time-graphs!

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