Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

[Larry Bevand]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

I have serious misgivings about ordering chess books from amazon. Since I am lucky enough to live in a town with a CMA store, they are my first choice. It's true no one can beat amazon's prices, but they also have a different situation with regards to overhead.

They strongarm distributors into taking all the risks while their profit is assured. I figure if I value a store where I can go in and see the product and which offers a wider product line, it has to be supported. Besides, publishers like Quality and Russell are already holding their product back a couple of months, so CMA will have them sooner.

Ironically though, my last purchase was the 2 volume Smyslov collection from Moravian Chess. I got them through NIC because they had a special and CMA only had volume 2. Amazon doesn't even know they exist. :)

Hi Neil,

Thanks for this post as I was getting a little discouraged :).

At the CMA, we also publish a few titles which Amazon.com has picked up (Amazon.ca was not interested when I enquired a few years ago). They demand much better terms than we give and get from book suppliers. In otherwords, it isn't an even playing field...but hey, that is the world today and you do the best you can in that situation.

I hope the chess community will support our organization. I hope they will make an effort to purchase from us before going to other sources. We are a not-for-profit organization that has been supporting chess in Canada for 25 years...for some this has value...for others the bottom line is what is important. I respect both views, although I have a preference for one :).

For those who are not aware, this site...ChessTalk....is owned and operated by the Chess'n Math Association (CMA).

We pay the bills to keep the site operational and have done that for the last 10 years.

This weekend we helped bring chess to the general public at a street Festival in Ottawa and we also sponsored a scholastic team match between Quebec and Ontario in Kingston.

This was possible only because people like yourselves support our organization by making their purchases with us.

Just something I would like folks to think about.

You can visit our website at : www.strategygames.ca

We totally appreciate your support...without it...we would never have been around for 25 years!


Sincerely,


Larry Bevand
Executive Director
Chess'n Math Association

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

I would be interested in hearing opinions on the best/most enjoyable chess book to read, not a tournament/teaching/opening manual book, but a reading book like a biography or something anecdotal.

Having cast a glance over what I call the "entertainment" section of my chess library, I would now add:

* The 4 volumes by Winter on his chess research
* Moravian chess publishing's "Chess reader" by Ken Whyld
* The Human Comedy of Chess by Hans Ree
* Total Chess by David Spanier
* The Even More Complete Chess Addict by Fox & James

[Ken MacDonald]

My Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read...

I would be interested in hearing opinions on the best/most enjoyable chess book to read, not a tournament/teaching/opening manual book, but a reading book like a biography or something anecdotal.

I had intended to exclude any games collections, but didn't word it correctly!!

So, in this vein, my favourite "book" is the trilogy, Chess On The Edge about Suttles and his games. The positions are remarkable, there are copious notes and diagrams that allow one to follow the games without using a board and I especially enjoy comments about what the games meant in the situation as well as the notes that are not simply variations, but real explanations what Suttles was thinking and what was going on in the game.

Most of the books listed by others above were also enjoyable and there are many others I take pleasure in "reading" but I can only list one, so....

[Ed Seedhouse]

Re: My Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read...

I picked up an odd little book at the local Chapters a couple of weeks ago which I am enjoying. It's part of the "teach yourself" series, "Teach yourself better chess" by IM William Hartson (though you couldn't tell that from the cover). It has 75 short two page essays on various aspects of the game, with discussion on the first page and an example on the second. There's also a boxed rule or maxim for each article. For instance the first maxim is "first calculate the calculable".

I find the discussions well written and the examples are quite good and make the point.

Basically a book of "chess maxims", but often stated in original and (to my mind) effective ways. This is the 2006 edition so it's fairly up to date with it's examples as well.

The only annoying thing about the book is the large number on the first page of each short article. Not only is it unnecessarily large but they've turned them on their side.

But it's the kind of book you can sample in a spare moment. I think anyone 1500 to about 2100 can get something out of this book, while enjoying the read.

I wouldn't say it's a major effort or all that important, but it is easy and enjoyable to read and that's what the thread title is about, right? Oh, and it's cheap and portable and reasonably sturdy as well.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

* Moravian chess publishing's "Chess reader" by Ken Whyld

more details? I could find that K.W. was publishing a magazine with this title, and there is a reprint as a book.
http://www.kwabc.org/Homepage-UK/publications02.htm
http://www.chessware.de/catalog/whyl...er-p-2172.html


I've a Chess reader too but by other editor - a collection of articles, letters, stories etc about chess from all ages/authors. The book was published ~1945-1949 (I'll check details later)

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

more details? I could find that K.W. was publishing a magazine with this title, and there is a reprint as a book.
http://www.kwabc.org/Homepage-UK/publications02.htm
http://www.chessware.de/catalog/whyl...er-p-2172.html


I've a Chess reader too but by other editor - a collection of articles, letters, stories etc about chess from all ages/authors. The book was published ~1945-1949 (I'll check details later)

Your links point to it. From the blurb:

"Back in 1955, the late Ken Whyld started up his own magazine of book reviews, partly because he loved chess books but also because it had the added benefit of providing free copies of books from publishers to help build his library.

By doing so he conferred a great benefit on chess bibliophiles; volumes of The Chess Reader are much sought after as useful reference material as well as early examples of Ken Whyld’s excellent writing style."

Essentially it's an insight into chess publishing during the period 1955 - 1966. If you were the "I need 1 of everything" type of collector, you'd be busy for years chasing after all these titles. Even if you're more restrained, you'll find a few titles to thirst for just the same.

While the production standards of the books from Moravian Chess can drive me nuts, the eclectic choice of reprints is pretty impressive.

http://moravian-chess.cz/

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

details later

The Chess Reader by Jerome Salzmann, 1949

and from a letter by an anonymous author dated 1784: "that after having been able to learn Chess, you must not complain of an inability to learn anything else."

[Neil Sullivan]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

The Chess Reader by Jerome Salzmann, 1949

This book is full of interesting little pieces. The table of contents runs to 13 pages!

It's in the same vein as Burt Hochberg's The 64-Square Looking Glass: The Great Game of Chess in World Literature (1993). In the preface, he notes other such volumes:

The Art of Chess-Playing (1936) Edwin Valentine Mitchell
The Chess Reader (1949) Jerome Saltzman
Chess in Literature (1975) Marcello Truzzi
Chess Pieces (1949 & 1968) Norman Knight
King, Queen & Knight (1975) Norman Knight and Will Guy
The Poetry of Chess (1981) Andrew Waterman

[Wayne Komer]

Re: My Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read...

Writings in Chess History by John Hilbert is a good read. I particularly liked the further adventures of Norman Tweed Whitaker “arguably the most notorious chessplayer in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century” - he was involved in the Lindbergh baby kidnap hoax.

What chess books does Hilbert like for a good read?

“As for CC, my favorite is Grigory Sanakoev’s World Champion at the Third Attempt (1999). What a readable game collection, with actual explanations and not merely Informant coding! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning something about top level CC play. In more general terms Genna Sosonko’s Russian Silhouettes (2001) holds a very high place in my regard. A very pleasant surprise for me was reading Philip Sergeant’s A Century of British Chess (1934), a used copy of which I purchased for a relatively small price. I had started the book as a “duty” before considering working on British chess history subjects, and quickly found myself reading it for the fascinatingly detailed account it provides of British chess during the period 1830 – 1930. I’ve read it twice now and keep going back to various sections simply for fun, and to try and immerse myself in the subject. Not surprisingly, as a chess historian looking for entertaining reading, I also find myself returning time after time to two of Edward Winter’s books, Chess Explorations (1996) and Kings, Commoners and Knaves (1999).”

[Erwin Casareno]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

The book that i enjoyed reading the most, and still remember most of the stories written there, tell the story of how the author gradually moved to the master ranks by learning chess secrets from other masters of his time.

The author's life and destiny changed because of chess. He chose to be an Engineer rather than a doctor because the university is located in a city that has plenty of chess activities.
The story that i liked the most (and i share with young kids of today) is when he played in a tournament under a false name so that the dormitory officials won't know that he is going out of the dorm at night to play chess andc ome back late at night. His other dorm colleague would open the door for him.

Until one night, after he finished his game in the tournament, the dorm door was opened for him by the dorm master.

Due to his funny reaction, the dorm master laughed at him and did not punish him.

The book was written by ===Edward Lasker and entitled = Chess Secrets i Learned from the Masters.

First read in the 70s, I love this book and i recommend it. It is a book to collect = a must have book !!!

Published in 1951, 428 pages, cost from $ 12.

Edward Lasker is not related to Emmanuel Lasker.

Edward Lasker (December 3, 1885 – March 25, 1981) was a leading German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author.

Edward (then Eduard) Lasker was born in Kempen (Kępno), Province of Posen (Greater Poland), Prussia, German Empire, (present Poland). He studied in Breslau (Wrocław) and in Charlottenburg (now part of Berlin). Before World War I he moved first to London, England, and then, in 1914 shortly after the outbreak of war, to America, the birthplace of his mother. He found a job in Chicago. When America entered the war in 1917, he was sent enlistment papers, but with the right of exemption as a German. He waived his right to exemption, which he said would make his American citizenship be granted more quickly; however, the war was over before he was called up to military service.

Lasker earned undergraduate degrees at the Technical College of Charlottenburg in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. In 1921–23, he invented a mechanical breast pump, which saved many premature infants' lives and made Lasker a lot of money, although it caused his friends to refer to him facetiously as "the chest player".[1][2]

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Best/Most Enjoyable Chess Book To Read?

My nomination for most enjoyable chess book is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by GM David Bronstein and Tom Ferstenburg (1995). Has it all: great stories (much Soviet chess corruption), great annotated games, lots of short games, great photos, all infused with Bronstein's tremendous spirit. :)

And, Edwin, Emanuel Lasker was, in fact, distantly related to Edward Lasker!!!! The two discovered this at the New York 1924 supertournament, where they both competed. :)