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Chess Notes No Longer To Appear Regularly
March 17, 2020
Most chess players interested in chess history will be aware of the website Chess Notes by Edward Winter at:
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html
Wikipedia says this: Edward Winter (born 1955) is an English chess journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author. He writes a regular column on chess history, Chess Notes.
Chess Notes started as a bimonthly periodical, and was described by its author, in the first issue (January–February 1982), as "A forum for aficionados to discuss all matters relating to the Royal Pastime". Since September 2004, Chess Notes has been located at the website Chesshistory.com.
Between 1996 and 2006 four anthologies of Chess Notes were published in book form.
Yasser Seirawan calls Winter "the chess world's foremost authority on its rich history". Jan Timman has commented: "Writers on chess history and the games of yesteryear are not normally pathfinders or perfectionists, but Edward Winter is an exception, taking great pains not only to tackle difficult research tasks but also to present the facts precisely." William Hartston observed of him: "Edward Winter is probably the most meticulous and diligent researcher and chess writer around. For several years, from his home in Switzerland, he produced the much-admired Chess Notes, a privately published journal of chess history and anecdotes that was the scourge of all that was sloppy or dishonest in chess. Winter's brilliantly scathing style, always adopted in the noble cause of accuracy, gives his writings a marvellously entertaining as well as instructive quality."
Recently, this appeared on his site:
11763. Chess Notes
Owing to other commitments, it will be necessary for us to curtail the posting of new C.N. items as from the end of March 2020. Thereafter, additions to the main C.N. page and to feature articles will be possible only occasionally.
This announcement is made already now for the sake of good order, and for the particular benefit of any correspondents who are currently preparing a submission.
All C.N. pages, including the feature articles, will remain openly viewable on-line.
________
It is impossible to realize how much work goes into his regular writings. Things are checked and checked again because many would delight in finding a mistake by the man who finds mistakes in the work of others.
Let us say that it is six hours a day, day after day and week after week. He has found time to write books and to check the works of others. You might remember that when John Nunn revised Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games for an algebraic edition, Bobby denounced the result, Nunn and the Batsford publishers to boot.
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer.html
Winter wrote: “CHESS (magazine) engaged us to make an assessment of the extent of the textual changes made. It was apparent that a mere spot-check would not suffice, and we thus compared line-by-line the Faber and Faber edition and the new Batsford version. This verification work showed that over 570 changes had been made by Batsford, and a range of examples was presented on pages 45-48 of the January 1997 CHESS. We found that entire notes of Fischer’s had been omitted, individual words had been deleted, other words had been added and – the most frequent occurrence – Fischer’s wording had simply been changed without justification. Inconsistency had been introduced, a number of misspellings in the original had been left uncorrected, and many fresh mistakes had been added by Batsford.”
To check every fact means that you have an extensive correspondence with historians and collectors. You also must have a large book collection yourself.
I have estimated that Winter’s library must have at least 15,000 volumes. Downsizing is inevitable. This note from August 2017:
10574. Books and magazines
Readers may appreciate the opportunity to acquire a number of books and magazines from our collection. For instance, we should like to find a good home for sets of books which have given rise to feature articles, e.g. works (many signed) by Ely Culbertson, Reuben Fine, Alfred Kreymborg, Jim Phelan, Hubert Phillips and Sir John Simon. There are also many books on Nardus, Prokofiev and Tolstoy, as well as works authored by, and signed by, Gilbert Highet, a comprehensive set of historical (non-chess) books by P.W. Sergeant, the non-chess books of Fred Reinfeld and volumes on the Wallace murder, Thomas Hood and Tsar Nicholas II. Material related to Birdie Reeve is on offer. Productions by Jeremy Gaige, mostly unpublished, on chess personalia and tournaments can be supplied too, alongside a large collection of juvenilia, chess fiction and poetry.
Various books by Milan Vidmar and Lajos Steiner on electronics are available, as are many non-chess books which have been mentioned in C.N. over the years on account of some connection with our game.
The categories excluded are what might be termed the mainstay of C.N. items (biographical and autobiographical works, tournament books and old magazines), as well as all books and documents inscribed to us. A few books with multiple signatures by leading masters, as shown in C.N. over the years, are unlikely to be yielded for the time being, but many other inscribed items can be requested, as can complete runs of some relatively recent magazines (particularly from the 1980s), postage stamps and photographs.
Enquiries from readers should be as precise as possible and will be dealt with promptly.
________
I got a signed Reinfeld (Alekhine vs Bogoljubow WCC 1934), Hanover 1926 and ten very scarce study books by Alexander Rueb in April of 2018 from him via eBay auctions.
He authored these books:
The Book of the Havana Int. Masters Tournament 1913 [editor] 1976
107 Great Chess Battles (Alekhine) edited by Winter (1980)
World Chess Champions (1981)
Capablanca: a compendium of games, notes, articles etc on the Cuban Chess genius Jose Raul Capablanca (1989)
Chess Explorations (1996)
Kings, Commoners and Knaves (1999)
A Chess Omnibus (2003)
Chess Facts and Fables (2006)
I subscribed to his newsletter, Chess Notes, that were later compiled into eight separate volumes covering 1982 to 1989.
I can remember fondly reading Chess Notes as I travelled every morning out to the library of the Osgoode Hall Law School almost forty years ago. I was helping revise the City of Toronto Sewer Use By-law. Winter gave me an enjoyable hour read on the way to and on the way back from my researches.
___________
I will not speculate as to whether Edward is retiring to write a book, or because of health or age. He leaves a formidable body of work.
See also:
https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic...511d82#p241903
March 17, 2020
Most chess players interested in chess history will be aware of the website Chess Notes by Edward Winter at:
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html
Wikipedia says this: Edward Winter (born 1955) is an English chess journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author. He writes a regular column on chess history, Chess Notes.
Chess Notes started as a bimonthly periodical, and was described by its author, in the first issue (January–February 1982), as "A forum for aficionados to discuss all matters relating to the Royal Pastime". Since September 2004, Chess Notes has been located at the website Chesshistory.com.
Between 1996 and 2006 four anthologies of Chess Notes were published in book form.
Yasser Seirawan calls Winter "the chess world's foremost authority on its rich history". Jan Timman has commented: "Writers on chess history and the games of yesteryear are not normally pathfinders or perfectionists, but Edward Winter is an exception, taking great pains not only to tackle difficult research tasks but also to present the facts precisely." William Hartston observed of him: "Edward Winter is probably the most meticulous and diligent researcher and chess writer around. For several years, from his home in Switzerland, he produced the much-admired Chess Notes, a privately published journal of chess history and anecdotes that was the scourge of all that was sloppy or dishonest in chess. Winter's brilliantly scathing style, always adopted in the noble cause of accuracy, gives his writings a marvellously entertaining as well as instructive quality."
Recently, this appeared on his site:
11763. Chess Notes
Owing to other commitments, it will be necessary for us to curtail the posting of new C.N. items as from the end of March 2020. Thereafter, additions to the main C.N. page and to feature articles will be possible only occasionally.
This announcement is made already now for the sake of good order, and for the particular benefit of any correspondents who are currently preparing a submission.
All C.N. pages, including the feature articles, will remain openly viewable on-line.
________
It is impossible to realize how much work goes into his regular writings. Things are checked and checked again because many would delight in finding a mistake by the man who finds mistakes in the work of others.
Let us say that it is six hours a day, day after day and week after week. He has found time to write books and to check the works of others. You might remember that when John Nunn revised Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games for an algebraic edition, Bobby denounced the result, Nunn and the Batsford publishers to boot.
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fischer.html
Winter wrote: “CHESS (magazine) engaged us to make an assessment of the extent of the textual changes made. It was apparent that a mere spot-check would not suffice, and we thus compared line-by-line the Faber and Faber edition and the new Batsford version. This verification work showed that over 570 changes had been made by Batsford, and a range of examples was presented on pages 45-48 of the January 1997 CHESS. We found that entire notes of Fischer’s had been omitted, individual words had been deleted, other words had been added and – the most frequent occurrence – Fischer’s wording had simply been changed without justification. Inconsistency had been introduced, a number of misspellings in the original had been left uncorrected, and many fresh mistakes had been added by Batsford.”
To check every fact means that you have an extensive correspondence with historians and collectors. You also must have a large book collection yourself.
I have estimated that Winter’s library must have at least 15,000 volumes. Downsizing is inevitable. This note from August 2017:
10574. Books and magazines
Readers may appreciate the opportunity to acquire a number of books and magazines from our collection. For instance, we should like to find a good home for sets of books which have given rise to feature articles, e.g. works (many signed) by Ely Culbertson, Reuben Fine, Alfred Kreymborg, Jim Phelan, Hubert Phillips and Sir John Simon. There are also many books on Nardus, Prokofiev and Tolstoy, as well as works authored by, and signed by, Gilbert Highet, a comprehensive set of historical (non-chess) books by P.W. Sergeant, the non-chess books of Fred Reinfeld and volumes on the Wallace murder, Thomas Hood and Tsar Nicholas II. Material related to Birdie Reeve is on offer. Productions by Jeremy Gaige, mostly unpublished, on chess personalia and tournaments can be supplied too, alongside a large collection of juvenilia, chess fiction and poetry.
Various books by Milan Vidmar and Lajos Steiner on electronics are available, as are many non-chess books which have been mentioned in C.N. over the years on account of some connection with our game.
The categories excluded are what might be termed the mainstay of C.N. items (biographical and autobiographical works, tournament books and old magazines), as well as all books and documents inscribed to us. A few books with multiple signatures by leading masters, as shown in C.N. over the years, are unlikely to be yielded for the time being, but many other inscribed items can be requested, as can complete runs of some relatively recent magazines (particularly from the 1980s), postage stamps and photographs.
Enquiries from readers should be as precise as possible and will be dealt with promptly.
________
I got a signed Reinfeld (Alekhine vs Bogoljubow WCC 1934), Hanover 1926 and ten very scarce study books by Alexander Rueb in April of 2018 from him via eBay auctions.
He authored these books:
The Book of the Havana Int. Masters Tournament 1913 [editor] 1976
107 Great Chess Battles (Alekhine) edited by Winter (1980)
World Chess Champions (1981)
Capablanca: a compendium of games, notes, articles etc on the Cuban Chess genius Jose Raul Capablanca (1989)
Chess Explorations (1996)
Kings, Commoners and Knaves (1999)
A Chess Omnibus (2003)
Chess Facts and Fables (2006)
I subscribed to his newsletter, Chess Notes, that were later compiled into eight separate volumes covering 1982 to 1989.
I can remember fondly reading Chess Notes as I travelled every morning out to the library of the Osgoode Hall Law School almost forty years ago. I was helping revise the City of Toronto Sewer Use By-law. Winter gave me an enjoyable hour read on the way to and on the way back from my researches.
___________
I will not speculate as to whether Edward is retiring to write a book, or because of health or age. He leaves a formidable body of work.
See also:
https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic...511d82#p241903