Handbuch des Schachspiels

Before continuing with the recent rarities at auction I will elaborate on J. K. Hanshew's final comment at the end of his Good Bye! on page 464 of the last issue of The Maryland Chess Review (see previous post). 

 

Hanshew had announced that a translation of the Handbuch des Schachspiels was "already well advanced" in the January 1875 issue of The Maryland Chess Review on page 16 and gave the following details:

 

On page 118 of the March 1875 issue Hanshew informed a correspondent that the translator of the Handbuch  was E. A. Kunkel, a contributor to the magazine.

 

In April Hanshew stated that the first part of the translation was nearly ready and re-iterated that there would be 10 parts available to subscribers only.

Nothing more was heard from Hanshew and it is a pity, although not surprising, that this ambitious project was not completed. Kunkel launched (with others) The American Chess Magazine, published in Hartford, Connecticut, in April 1875 but this lasted for just two issues.

However, one part of the translation was published and this is referred to by von der Lasa in his Erneutes Verzeichniss meiner Sammlung von Schriften über das Schachspiel distributed in 1896.

 

From page 76 of Sammlung von Schriften:

and from page 160:

The title of the only part issued was A Translation of the 5th ed. of the Handbuch des Schachspiels, translated by E. A. Kunkel, Frederick, Md 1875.

Cleveland Public Library, Princeton University Library (Eugene B. Cook Chess Collection) and University of Wisconsin-Madison Library (Cutter Colection) have copies of this, stating 44 pages and containing only the Allgaier gambit and Center or Northern gambit.    

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