A Sign of the Chess Times

[Brad Thomson]

I remember vaguely back in the day that my mind had no limits and my memory had no limits. Now I wish I could get some of that stuff out of my head.

Someone said, "Burn your Reinfeld books." Was it Kevin?

[Hans Jung]

The chess book I go to most is Nick's Best, with the signature of the author on the title page. It is easily readable (the autograph I mean), as opposed to some signatures that are difficult to decipher. Other than this book I like to physically pull out and read/study from Nunn's three volumes on the endgame. I would have no interest in flipping through these pages on a computer screen looking at a 2D board. A large part of the joy is feeling the wood, moving it around, positioning the book and so forth. Not to mention having a cat move in and deliberately topple pieces. Even when watching the events online such as Tata, I keep my best set in front of me following a game of choice and spend most of my time looking at the real board rather than the computer. I tend only to watch the screen if Svidler and others are discussing my specific game of choice. My eyes do not like screens on computers or televisions unless absolutely necessary.

You have expressed it so well Brad, thats exactly the way I feel.
As regards Nick's Best it truly is an easy read and thoroughly expressed in Lawrence's appealing and unique writing style. A vintage piece of Canadian chess heritage that lives every time you pick it up. I have two copies and I still select parts to read and marvel at the games and commentary and think golden thoughts of yesteryear about Nick and Lawrence. Such memories!

[Hans Jung]

Someone said, "Burn your Reinfeld books." Was it Kevin?

There my memory partially fails me. Actually a few said that to me - one was Ray Stone (partially in jest) another was Dave Jackson to someone else in my presence. What I remember of Kevin is in his last statement (that I read) he recommended a couple of good Reinfeld books. I woould never admit to owning any Reinfeld books.

[Peter McKillop]

There my memory partially fails me. Actually a few said that to me - one was Ray Stone (partially in jest) another was Dave Jackson to someone else in my presence. What I remember of Kevin is in his last statement (that I read) he recommended a couple of good Reinfeld books. I woould never admit to owning any Reinfeld books.

If you check Jeff Sonas's site, it looks like Reinfeld was solid/strong IM strength in his prime. And you're right, Hans, Kevin did have a couple of Reinfeld books in his list of favourites (Tarrasch's Best Games and Hypomodern Chess) so K. must have been reasonably satisfied with the quality of FR's annotations. To my way of thinking, Reinfeld, Chernev, and Horowitz all had as their primary aim the popularization of chess. And they did a good job!

Here's a link to Kevin's book list:
https://canchess.tripod.com/favorite.htm

[Hans Jung]

Thanks Peter - great list. But mainly because it brings back that I was reading chesstalk even back then (soon 25 years - WoW!)

[Fred Henderson]

From time to time, like many of you probably, I like to download publishers' pdf excerpts from recently published books to see if anything grabs my attention. Quality Chess recently issued two huge books on the KID by GM Gawain Jones; 1300+ pages in total. Jones made this humourous (to me) comment: "The complete repertoire ended up being quite large, but I hope after working through it you’ll agree with me that Black’s play is quite logical, making it easier to remember." Right! You know what? It's good to be a chess hack and not have to worry about remembering 1,300 pages of theory!

Only 1300+ pages? How does it compare with "Kotronias on the King's Indian", an epic five volume series that offers a seemingly thorough repertoire (one line only) for Black

[Peter McKillop]

Only 1300+ pages? How does it compare with "Kotronias on the King's Indian", an epic five volume series that offers a seemingly thorough repertoire (one line only) for Black

Kotronias: 2,300+ pages

[Fred Henderson]

Kotronias: 2,300+ pages

I owned the Kotronias set for a while. Pron cost around $300, but he did a great job

[Aris Marghetis]

The chess book I go to most is Nick's Best, with the signature of the author on the title page. It is easily readable (the autograph I mean), as opposed to some signatures that are difficult to decipher. Other than this book I like to physically pull out and read/study from Nunn's three volumes on the endgame. I would have no interest in flipping through these pages on a computer screen looking at a 2D board. A large part of the joy is feeling the wood, moving it around, positioning the book and so forth. Not to mention having a cat move in and deliberately topple pieces. Even when watching the events online such as Tata, I keep my best set in front of me following a game of choice and spend most of my time looking at the real board rather than the computer. I tend only to watch the screen if Svidler and others are discussing my specific game of choice. My eyes do not like screens on computers or televisions unless absolutely necessary.

I totally agree Brad! Another thing I do with my favourite books is take them to Staples to get spiral-bound. It's not expensive, and you don't have to keep holding the book open lol

[Peter McKillop]

I totally agree Brad! Another thing I do with my favourite books is take them to Staples to get spiral-bound. It's not expensive, and you don't have to keep holding the book open lol

What a great idea, Aris. Typically what does it cost to have a book spiral-bound?

[Aris Marghetis]

What a great idea, Aris. Typically what does it cost to have a book spiral-bound?

Hi Peter, I can't remember exactly, but I get a good "that was worth it" feeling every time I open such a book. I'm guessing that it would now be the cost of a drive-thru meal, but that is guessing still (inflation happens) - and you don't even need bookmarks anymore, as you can just leave the book open. In addition, to your own personal taste, you can add clear (or coloured) plastic covers, etc. I think the only one I ever hesitated doing due to cost was How To Reassess Your Chess, as after a certain number of pages, the spiralling mechanism changes, and you enter another cost bracket.

P.S. note when dealing with hardcovers, I believe you lose the actual hard covers when you spiral-bind

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Add additional blank pages for notes as Nimzo or Alekhine did too.

[Bob Gillanders]

When I was younger, friends told me buying chess books would help me improve. So I bought some chess books. Maybe too many.
So, there was some improvement, but "diminishing returns" maybe?

But now that I look back over the years, I think I know what went wrong. I have one question.

Was I supposed to read them? :)

[Vlad Drkulec]

Was I supposed to read them? :)

You should at least read the cover.

[David Ottosen]

I am sure I'll encounter some young chess player in the near future who will say - oh yes I have memorized Jones KID. On the other hand are young chess players even reading any kind of chess book these days? I guess its database memorization if its anything.

The day I knew my chess peak was passed was playing a tournament, winning my game, and my young opponent asking why I deviated from my usual way of playing that opening. I confidently informed him I'd never played that variation before and he opened his database to show me two games I'd played in the line (both of which I'd played much better in the past than I did against him). Kids today don't study books - they study opponents and databases.