I just read my 300th chess book

[David Cohen]

I just read my 300th chess book:

Canadian Chess Problems by Charles F. Stubbs, 1890 [Saint John, NB]

Regards,

David

[Hans Jung]

Is that 300 Canadian chess books?

[Kerry Liles]

I don't think there are 300 Canadian chess books... (are there?)

[Wayne Komer]

I just read my 300^thchess book

December 31, 2018

If you read all of a chess book, does that mean you have worked out all the problems and played all the games?

The question I am most often asked about my collection of chess books by non-collectors is, “Have you read all of them?”

My answer is that I know what is in each. If I collected hockey jerseys of famous players, I would hardly be expected to have worn each.

As far as I know, Stubbs authored Globe problem and solution tourney no. 2 (1889), Canadian chess problems (1890) and Chess problems (1904). Back in the 70s, Dale Brandreth found a cache of several copies of Canadian chess problems and asked me if it was the first chess book published in Canada. I did not know, nor did I buy one from him for $20 then, which I really should have.

I probably have read very few non-fiction chess books cover to cover. My 60 Memorable Games, The Human Side of Chess (Reinfeld), One Hundred Selected Games (Botvinnik), Bobby Fischer’s games of chess and Chess for Fun and Chess for Blood (Edward Lasker) are ones that come to mind.

In the fiction category, a cover-to-cover read is easy.

In this category I place Searching for Bobby Fischer (Waitzkin), The Luneburg Variation (Maurensig), The Game of Kings (Dunnett), The Flanders Panel (Perez-Reverte), The Luzhin Defense (Nabokov), Chess Story (Zweig), The Queen’s Gambit (Trevis), The Chessmen of Mars (Burroughs), Auto-da-fe (Canetti) and The Dragon Variations (Glyn).

[Roger Patterson]

I just read my 300^thchess book

December 31, 2018

If you read all of a chess book, does that mean you have worked out all the problems and played all the games?

The question I am most often asked about my collection of chess books by non-collectors is, “Have you read all of them?”

My answer is that I know what is in each. If I collected hockey jerseys of famous players, I would hardly be expected to have worn each.

As far as I know, Stubbs authored Globe problem and solution tourney no. 2 (1889), Canadian chess problems (1890) and Chess problems (1904). Back in the 70s, Dale Brandreth found a cache of several copies of Canadian chess problems and asked me if it was the first chess book published in Canada. I did not know, nor did I buy one from him for $20 then, which I really should have.

I probably have read very few non-fiction chess books cover to cover. My 60 Memorable Games, The Human Side of Chess (Reinfeld), One Hundred Selected Games (Botvinnik), Bobby Fischer’s games of chess and Chess for Fun and Chess for Blood (Edward Lasker) are ones that come to mind.

In the fiction category, a cover-to-cover read is easy.

In this category I place Searching for Bobby Fischer (Waitzkin), The Luneburg Variation (Maurensig), The Game of Kings (Dunnett), The Flanders Panel (Perez-Reverte), The Luzhin Defense (Nabokov), Chess Story (Zweig), The Queen’s Gambit (Trevis), The Chessmen of Mars (Burroughs), Auto-da-fe (Canetti) and The Dragon Variations (Glyn).

queen’s gambit (Travis) but not king’s gambit (Hoffman)? You really should; It’s an enjoyable read (non fiction). Although the author is not Canadian, there is a fair bit of Canadiana in it.

[Hans Jung]

I think there are 300+ canadian chess books, but I'll let the experts answer. There's a few of them that might see this post.

[Wayne Komer]

I just read my 300^thchess book

January 1, 2019

Canadian Chess Books

What is a Canadian chess book? I would say that:

1. It has a Canadian player as its subject
2. It is written by a Canadian
3. It is a tournament book from a Canadian event

For the moment, I set aside Canadian chess periodicals.

Then, if you go to the canadianchess.info site, David Cohen has listed all the Canadian chess books and booklets from 1864 to 2013.

http://www.canadianchess.info/canadi...lications.html

My count of the items in that list is 430 , the last one being Feodor Bohatirchuk, Volume 2, 1935-1984 by Sergei Voronkov (2013).

If anyone has a title after this date, then we can update the list in this thread.

Three books that come to mind for inclusion are The Chess Attacker’s Handbook by Song and Preotu, Kurt Richter by Alan McGowan and My Adventures in the Chess World by Jonathan MacDonald.

[Hugh Brodie]

David Cohen's list is titled "Canadian Chess Publications", so it includes items that I wouldn't really consider "books". A group of tournament bulletins can't be considered a "book" - although if they were bound and copies available to the public (free or for a charge) - yes - it would be a "book".

Likewise - you can't consider a university thesis a "book". (Leon Piasetski's thesis on "An evaluation function for simple king and pawn endings" (1977) isn't on David's list).

Other missing items would be CFC rating list booklets that were produced annually from about 1965 to 1973.

Maybe a legitimate "book" should be a publication with an ISBN number?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

If anyone has a title after this date, then we can update the list in this thread.

Three books that come to mind for inclusion are The Chess Attacker’s Handbook by Song and Preotu, Kurt Richter by Alan McGowan and My Adventures in the Chess World by Jonathan MacDonald.

Cumming about English

Panjwani about Dragon

Doknjas about Najdorf

Orlova's book for novice players.

One from future:
2019
Жан Эбер (Hebert): Типовые жертвы в сицилианской защите (Typical Sacrifices in Sicilian Defense)
http://www.chessm.ru/catalog/show/9599

[Wayne Komer]

I just read my 300^thchess book

January 1, 2019

Thank you, Egidijus. We can add these eight books to David Cohen’s list:

David Cummings Open Repertoire: The English 2017
Raja Panjwani The Hyper Accelerated Dragon 2017
John and Joshua Doknjas The Sicilian Najdorf 2019
George Huczek A to Z Chess Tactics 2017
Jean Hebert The Sicilian: Thematic Sacrifices and Attacks 2017
Michael Song and Razvan Preotu The Chess Attacker’s Handbook 2017

See: http://chess.ca/newsfeed/node/1080

Alan McGowan Kurt Richter 2018

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/kurt-richter/

Yelizaveta Orlova Chess for Beginners: Know the Rules, Choose Your Strategy, and Start Winning 2018

See: https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Beginne.../dp/1641522577

[Roger Patterson]

I just read my 300^thchess book

January 1, 2019

Canadian Chess Books

What is a Canadian chess book? I would say that:

1. It has a Canadian player as its subject
2. It is written by a Canadian
3. It is a tournament book from a Canadian event

For the moment, I set aside Canadian chess periodicals.

Then, if you go to the canadianchess.info site, David Cohen has listed all the Canadian chess books and booklets from 1864 to 2013.

http://www.canadianchess.info/canadi...lications.html

My count of the items in that list is 430 , the last one being Feodor Bohatirchuk, Volume 2, 1935-1984 by Sergei Voronkov (2013).

If anyone has a title after this date, then we can update the list in this thread.

Three books that come to mind for inclusion are The Chess Attacker’s Handbook by Song and Preotu, Kurt Richter by Alan McGowan and My Adventures in the Chess World by Jonathan MacDonald.

But who counts as Canadian? That list includes works for example by Murray Campbell and Peter Biyassis, neither of whom have lived in Canada for a long time (or at the time some of those works were published) but as far as I can tell nothing by Cyrus Lackdawala (well known to Montreal players of a certain vintage)

[Roger Patterson]

that list of david Cohen’s also includes an enormous number of books by someone called David Lonsdale (some are probably duplicated as well under the e books section). Never heard of him.... Is he a well known author / player that I’m just ignorant about?

[Hugh Brodie]

that list of david Cohen’s also includes an enormous number of books by someone called David Lonsdale (some are probably duplicated as well under the e books section). Never heard of him.... Is he a well known author / player that I’m just ignorant about?

David Lonsdale lists himself as being from Toronto. There is a player of that name with a CFC rating of 1248 - inactive since 1997. He finished 193rd with 1.5/10 in the 1988 Canadian Open (Scarborough).

"The author of 59 chess monographs as of February, 2013."

From http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/20...graphy_12.html (scroll down):

"David Robert Lonsdale (2005). The Elephant Gambit for Black – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5!? Self-published. A 44 page, totally worthless data-dump. This is only slightly more useful than the work of Michael Raphael listed above. But there is really no reason for such books to exist in the digital age -- other than to make money for the author."

He has a blog which hasn't been updated since 2017: http://david-lonsdale.blogspot.com/

[Stephen Wright]

Two more:

Man vs. Machine by Karsten Müller and Jonathan Schaeffer
https://en.chessbase.com/post/vladim...man-vs-machine

Unconventional Chess by Some Loser
http://www.bcchesshistory.com/reviews.html#unortho

[Wayne Komer]

I just read my 300^thchess book

January 2, 2019

I would say that a work would have to have a strong Canadian connection to be included in the list if it were by a non-Canadian.

I am aware that nationality and invention can be controversial. One has only to look at Alexander Graham Bell, who was born in Scotland, lived and worked in both Brantford, Ontario and in Boston. Where did he invent the telephone?

Cyrus Lakdawala was born in India on 10 October, 1960, grew up in Montreal and has lived since the late 1970s in San Diego.

To date he has published more than 30 chess books – among them: Caruana, move by move, How Ulf beats black, Chess for hawks,Anti-Sicilians, move by moveand Capablanca, move by move. All these between 2010 and present.

I really see nothing there that gives him a strong Canadian connection.