Book List From the Past

[Peter McKillop]

GM Spraggett's list of pre 1985 favourites (still archived on the internet):

http://canchess.tripod.com/favorite.htm

[Hans Jung]

I have every one of those but the last one. However I'm not a GM - oh well.

[Peter McKillop]

I have every one of those but the last one. However I'm not a GM - oh well.

I'm missing four. Recently found out that Chess from Morphy to Botwinnik was still in print and bought a copy. Really enjoying it.

[Neil Frarey]

Chess Improviser, by Bronstein

Just snagged a copy off Abebooks ... :))))

[Wayne Komer]

Book List From the Past

October 12, 2020

The only one I don’t own is The Chess Terrorist’s Handbook by Shamkovich – Number 36 on the list. No. 25 is more properly David Bronstein – Chess Improviser.

This is the list just in case it disappears from the archives:

	-
		Kevin Spraggett's Book List
	-
		Please find below a list of thirty-odd books that no self respecting GM
		would ever be found dead NOT having in his library...d stuff' published since...)
		(please note that this only includes books published before '85, and does not
		include good stuff published since…)
	-
1		Complete Chess Strategy, by Pachman (3 vol)
2		The Middle Game in Chess, by Euwe (2 vol) (Static Features, Dynamic Features)
3		500 Master Games of Chess, by Tartakover
4		Lasker's Manual, by God (Em.Lasker)
5		Common Sense in Chess, by Em.Lasker
6		Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik, by Konig
7		Pachman's Decisive Games, by Pachman
8		Tarrasch's Best Games, by Reinfeld (no, he didn't play them, thank god)
9		Life and games of Mikhail Tal, by Tal
10		Fischer's 60 Memorable Games, by the 'MAN' himself
11		Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces, by Kmoch (god
		couldn't do better...)
12		Pawn Power in Chess, by Kmoch
13		Paul Keres' Best Games, by P.Keres (no, not the
		'Nunn' edition)
14		Botvinnik's 100 selected games, by Botvinnik
		himself (Mr. Soviet Chess )
15		Zurich '53, by Bronstein (one of the ten best of all time)
16		Nottingham '36, by Alekhine
17		Practical Chess Endings, by Keres (the 'must'
		first book of endings)
18		Tal vs Botvinnik match of '60, by Tal himself (one of the top ten)
19		Ideas behind the openings, by Fine
20		Art of Positional chess, by Reshevsky (truly great book)
21		The Application of Chess Theory, by Geller (or how to beat the world champions)
22		The Art of Attack in Chess, by Vukovich (or how to 'screw' your opponent)
23		A guide to the Chess endings, by Euve
24		How Not to Play Chess, by Borovsky (a great book)
25		Chess Improviser, by Bronstein (one of the
		greatest books of all time)
26		Hypermodern Chess, by Reinfeld (again, he didn't play any of these games...)
27		From Steinitz to Fischer , by Euve
28		World Chess Championship '37, by Alekhine
	-	(necessary reading)
29		Art of the middle game, by Keres and Kotov (super book)
30		Dynamic Chess, by Coles (great book by complete unknown)
31		My Best Games of Chess , by Tartakover (one of the best of all time)
32		Meet the Masters, by Euwe
33		GM preparation, by Polugaevsky (one of the top ten)
34		125 selected games, by Smyslov
35		My best games of chess, by Alekhine (3 vol)
36		The Chess Terrorist, by Shamkovich (great reading)

[Tony Boron]

GM Spraggett's list of pre 1985 favourites (still archived on the internet):

http://canchess.tripod.com/favorite.htm

I check that site every couple of years to see if it is still there - now 20+ years since I created it.

[Amit R]

Thanks for sharing this list.

Any insight into [13] : why does GM Spragett ask to avoid the Nunn edition? And which one is he recommending ? It seems there are atleast 3 versions : Golombek, Varnusz and Nunn .

For [20] : the McKay algebraic edition is supposedly full of errors ; any recommendations for the right edition ? Older McKay / RHM ?

[Peter McKillop]

Thanks for sharing this list.

Any insight into [13] : why does GM Spragett ask to avoid the Nunn edition? And which one is he recommending ? It seems there are atleast 3 versions : Golombek, Varnusz and Nunn .

For [20] : the McKay algebraic edition is supposedly full of errors ; any recommendations for the right edition ? Older McKay / RHM ?

I don't know about the Nunn comment but GM Spraggett's list was pre 1985 books - maybe that's what he meant?

Yes, there are rather a lot of errors in the McKay edition of Reshevsky's book. A rough estimate: one every seven or eight pages(?) on average. I've found that the large majority of the errors are in the game scores, not the annotations, and that they're easily correctible, either from context or a database. In any event, they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

p.s. GM Spraggett is recommending the edition of Keres' best games written by Keres himself.

[Amit R]

I don't know about the Nunn comment but GM Spraggett's list was pre 1985 books - maybe that's what he meant?

Yes, there are rather a lot of errors in the McKay edition of Reshevsky's book. A rough estimate: one every seven or eight pages(?) on average. I've found that the large majority of the errors are in the game scores, not the annotations, and that they're easily correctible, either from context or a database. In any event, they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

p.s. GM Spraggett is recommending the edition of Keres' best games written by Keres himself.

Thank you for clarifying, Peter.

Good to hear the algebraic edition of Reshevsky's book is worthwhile.

For Keres' games, I guess it is the Golombek books that was meant . From what I read, Keres published his books in Russian in 3 vols ; Golombek translated this into English and first published as a single volume " Grandmaster of Chess : The Complete Games of Paul Keres" , Arco , 1972. Subsequently, they were published as 3 vols ( Early, Middle, & Later Years) by Golombek. It still is print, it seems. but from Ishi Press, unfortunately, which has an unenviable reputation for print/image clarity in their books.

I've got 8 books in that list ; miles to go... . More important to read those 8 ones first, I guess.

[Amit R]

Thank you, Peter, for your comments ; I've orderd the algebraic Reshevsky book.

[Mario Moran-Venegas]

Is there a list of all or almost all Chess books printed?

[Peter McKillop]

Is there a list of all or almost all Chess books printed?

Not that I'm aware of, Mario. The Cleveland Public Library has a large collection of chess books and other chess materials. I believe it's called the John G. White collection. Perhaps you could check to see what information they have available online.

p.s. I believe one of Chesstalk's regulars, Wayne Komer, is an avid and knowledgeable chess book collector. Perhaps he wouldn't mind if you PM'd him for more information. (Sorry, Wayne, if I've stepped out of line with this suggestion)

[Wayne Komer]

Book List from the Past

October 21, 2020

I saw Mario’s question about a list of all chess books and was about to answer it when the telephone rang and a lady from Shopper’s Drug Mart said if I got over there right away, they were holding a double-strength ‘flu shot for me.

But now I am back.

There have been more than 100,000 chess books published. The main languages are German, Russian, English, Dutch and Serbian.

The two main books in English that cover publications in the last century are:

CHESS: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in the English Language 1850 to 1968 compiled by Douglas A. Betts. The original edition is rare but you can get a copy from Moravian Chess, Olomouc, Czech republic, 2005.

Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: A Catalogue of the Chess Collection in the Royal Library, the Hague, 1955. This also is rare but there is a 1988 reprint available by L’Esprit, Rosmalen.

The best place to go if you are trying to find details of a chess book from the past is the online catalogue of The Royal Library, The Hague at:

http://lijsten.kb.nl/lijst.htm?zoeke...PC.schaken.htm

or to the Cleveland Public Library, and reference the John G White Collection:

https://search.clevnet.org/client/en_US/clevnet

Now, having a database of all chess literature has been undertaken by the old Ken Whyld Society of chess book collectors. This is what they have on their website:

Database of Chess Bibliography

The comprehensive bibliographical recording of the entirety of chess literature in a database is certainly a very ambitious undertaking, which can only be realized to a large extent and in a reasonable time by means of a worldwide network. The initiator of this idea was the Dutch collector Jurgen Stigter, whose appeal led to the formation of the "Amsterdam Group" in November 2002.

A first version of an operational database was finally realized in November 2014 by our member Per Skjoldager. At the bi-annual meeting at the auction house Klittich-Pfankuch in November, he presented the first version of “Tobiblion” for the present attendees.

The status of the database project anno 2018 is that we now have two major fields of operations which are available to all members of CH&LS.

The first major area of the database is based on the Klittich-Pfankuch catalogues 40 to 77. The auction database corresponds to the descriptions of the lots in those catalogs and represents approximately 30.000 entries. The lots are illustrated with images from auction 53 and onwards. It is possible to the user to search the database on various search criteria. The database represents an invaluable tool to all collectors who wants to learn more on prices and content. The second major area is the bibliographical part of the database. The bibliography is a so-called descriptive bibliography which is aiming to describe collectable books in text and images. In due time, we will grow the database to its full potential, but at the moment we are focusing on finishing a few categories.

The categories we are working on are the following: Status as per June 1, 2020.

Bibliographies
Tournament & Congresses
Magazines
Biographies
Our aim is to describe the entries therein, in terms of bindings, dust jackets, title page, number of pages, publication year, place and much more. It is an invaluable tool to the collector who wants to know how a perfect copy should look like. If you are in doubt if a certain tournament book was published with a dust jacket or not, you should take a look in Tobiblion.

Magazines, is a special category which aims to describe the individual volumes within each magazine. Apart from the features mentioned above, it also focuses on covers, plates and indexes. For now, we have started with the most common magazines, but we would like to expand this category to cover all magazines over time.

https://www.kwabc.org/en/boc-project.html

There are chess bibliographies in various languages:

Mokry, Karel Ceska sachova literature 1806-1945
Stere, Marian Romania – A Bibliography of Chess 2009
Chicco, A. Bibliografia Italiana 1987
Drajic Overview of Yugoslavian Chess Literature 2010
Lueders Kieler Schachkatalog 2000
Sacharov Schachmatnja Literatura Rossii 2002
Van der Linde Geschichte und Literatur, Olms 1981 (facsimile of the 1874 edition)
Lusis Annotated Bibliography 1969-1988
Van Manen The Chess Literature of Australia and New Zealand 2009

Another useful guide is Chess Periodicals, An Annotated International Bibliography, 1836-2008 by Gino Di Felice. One must remember that there are thousands of volumes of chess magazines out there!

I hope this answers some of your questions. This is off the top of my head when I am filled with ‘flu vaccine.

[Wayne Komer]

Book List from the Past

October 21, 2020

Chess Book Lists (continued)

The Niemeijer catalogue has its data in 33 categories. Betts further divides these and has 55.

The sections of the former:

1. Bibliography
2. History
3. General works
4. Openings
5. Middle game
6. Endgame
7. Problems
8. Biography
9. Collections of games
10. Correspondence chess
11. Blind play
12. Academie des jeux
13. Notation
14. Chessmen
15. Living chess
16. Organizations
17. Societies
18. Automaton chessplayer
19. Mathematics
20. Philosophy
21. Moralizations
22. Belles lettres
23. Music
24. Heraldry
25. Humour
26. Varia
27. Derivative games
28. Draughts
29. Other games
30. Matches
31. Tournaments
32. Almanacs, yearbooks
33. Periodical publications

The Openings section, like the other has the publications arranged chronologically. So, the first work cited is by Ponziani with five openings, published in 1782.

The last work is by R. Schwarz on the Sicilian Defence, published in 1953.

There are 323 opening works given.

Now, if you wanted to see opening books to 1968, you would have to look in Betts. That book happens to be Santasiere’s folly by Anthony Santasiere, published in 1967.

If you then wanted to see all the opening books presently being available, what better thing to do than to into amazon.ca.

It has over 4,000 results for “chess openings” with each entry having title, author, publication date, price and a brief description.

The page I am currently looking at has:

The Agile London System by Romero (2016)
The Queen’s Gambit by Lemos (2019)
Bologan’s Ruy Lopez for Black by Bologan (2016)
The English by Cummings (2017)
Savage Chess Opening Traps by Albertson (2017)
The Sicilian Najdorf by the Doknjas’s (2019)


This completes my answer!

[Mario Moran-Venegas]

Ok Wayne now cooking books please........

Just kidding.
Wow .What an awesome answer. Thank you so much Wayne.