Endpapers with a chess theme (updated 9th February)

A few enterprising chess book publishers have thoughtfully adorned their works with attractive chess related endpapers. Some examples follow:

Chess Pieces An Anthology in Prose and Verse by Norman Knight, published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., London 1949.

Title page

Endpapers

The Chess Apprentice by R. Bott & S. Morrison, published by Collins, London 

1960. 

Front cover

Endpapers

A Short History of Chess by Henry A. Davidson, published by David McKay

Company, Inc., New York 1968.  

The first edition was published simultaneously by Greenberg, New York and Ambassador Books, Toronto 1949. The illustrations below are from the David McKay edition.

Dust jacket

The endpapers depict The March of Chess from its origin in Northern India circa 600 A.D. and the approximate dates that the game reached various countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. The Americas are not shown and some of the claimed dates are questionable.

 

Endpapers

A Book of Chess by C.H.O'D.Alexander, published by Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., London 1973

Dust Jacket

The endpapers "Metamorphose" are by M.C.Escher.

Endpapers

Chessmen by A.E.J. Mackett-Beeson, published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 1968.

Front cover

The endpapers show an engraving from Jean Meissonier's painting Les Jouers d'échecs (1835).

Endpapers

A print of Messonier's painting

Some publishers have even gone to the trouble of embellishing their works with different endpapers at front and rear. For example:

Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, published by Davis-Poynter Limited, London 1974. 

Dust jacket

The front endpapers show an engraving by Alexandre Laemlein of the famous painting by Jean-Henri Marlet of The Great Chess-Match Between England and France; Howard Staunton v Pierre St. Amant, November-December 1843, (the book states William Staunton on page [6]).

Front endpapers

The rear endpapers show the group photograph from the International Master's Chess Tournament at St. Petersburg, 1914. 

Rear Endpapers

Chess A History by Harry Golombek, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York 1976. 

Also published by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London 1976 as A History of Chess

Dust Jacket

The endpapers are taken from A Game at Chess by T.W. Couldery and portray the course of a game over eight sketches. This was originally published in The Illustrated London News on 25th May 1889.

Front endpapers

Rear endpapers

I would be very interested to hear of any other chess books with chess related endpapers.

                                        © Michael Clapham 2016

Fischer v Spassky World Championship Match 1972 part 2

Here are some further, less frequently seen, publications on the match.

1972 World Chess Championship; Icelandic Chess Federation's official commemorative program; Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer, published by B L & M Entertainment, New York 1972. 64pp

ICF Program front cover

ICF Program contents page

This is one of the most interesting publications on the match and it is packed with numerous photographs, by Chester Fox & Co., Inc., not seen elsewhere. A look at the Contents page will show the variety of fascinating articles included. The games themselves are extensively annotated (I am not sure by whom) with comments after nearly every move. 

ICF Program rear cover detail

The next two publications are not recorded in Lusis.

Match of the Century; Spassky/Fischer, author unknown, published by Shakh Publishing House, Caloocan City, Philippines 1972. 32pp.

Spassky/Fischer, Shakh, front cover

This booklet includes a short introduction and summary of the match, brief biographies of the players and the 21 games with very light notes. The previous five games between Spassky and Fischer are also included along with two brilliancies by Fischer; his game against Donald Byrne in the Third Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy Tournament in 1956 and his game against Julio Bolbochan at the Stockholm Interzonal Tournament in 1962, both games without notes.

Spassky/Fischer, Shakh, Introduction page

Record of a match between giants for the world chess championship Reykjavik, Iceland Summer 1972; Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky by Barbara & Morley Fox, published by Fox Book Co. Tacoma, Washington 1972. 24pp

Fischer vs Spassky by Fox, front cover

This little booklet, limited to 500 copies,  simply records the moves of each game without any notes. The five previous encounters between the players are also included.

Fischer vs Spassky by Fox, title page

The next two books were published following the 1992 match in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade but they also include the games from the 1972 match.

Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky; Reykjavik July 11 -September 1, 1972; 12.5:8.5; St. Stefan-Belgrade September 2-November 5, 1992; 41:5 (15 draws) edited by Slobodan Adzic, published by Chess-Press, Novi Sad 1992. 32pp

Fischer-Spassky by Adzic, front cover

Brief biographies of the players are followed by the 21 games from Reykjavik without notes but with 1 or 2 diagrams per game. The games of the match held in Sveti Stefan  occupy the second half of the book followed by a short closing interview with Fischer and Spassky.

Fischer-Spassky by Adzic, title page

1972 Spasski Fischer 1992 by Anatoli Matsukevitch, published by Match Chess, Moscow 1992. 52pp

Spasski Fischer by Matsukevitch, front cover

The very small amount of text is in English, German and Russian. The 21 games from 1972 are  included with diagrams and many language-less annotations followed by the 30 games from 1992 without any annotations. In the middle of the book are 8 pages of cartoons and caricatures from the 1972 match.

  

Matsukevitch, title page

 

Matsukevitch, game 6

Finally for now:

Report of the President concerning the decision on the site of play of the match for the World Championship Men 1972 Spassky-Fischer, by Max Euwe, printed by Chess, Sutton Coldfield 1972. 20pp

Report by Max Euwe

This pamphlet contains two reports by Max Euwe in his rôle as president of F.I.D.E.; the first dated February 18th, 1972 and the second dated May 16th, 1972. The reports cover in great detail the protracted negotiations regarding the venue for the match and include the text of many of the numerous telegrams and cables between the parties. Euwe was clearly very irritated and exasperated by the whole matter and concludes that `It is absolutely necessary that F.I.D.E takes the necessary steps to prevent such happenings in the future.´

                                      © Michael Clapham 2016

Fischer v Spassky World Championship Match 1972

The Neuhausen-Zurich Candidates Tournament of 1953 (see my article of 23rd January) generated more books in English than any previous tournament and it is quite clear which chess match gave rise to the largest number of books and pamphlets.  At least 25 publications in English alone followed the match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in Rekjavik in 1972 and there were many more in other languages.

Most of these books are very well known but I give details of some of the less frequently seen publications below. 


A Souvenir Record of all the Games; Spassky-Fischer; World Chess Championship Iceland 1972 by Harry Campbell, published by Monospools (Pty) Ltd. Cape Town c1973, 60pp

Campbell front cover

Campbell rear cover

This book includes a Foreword by Leonard Reitstein, a Preface by the author,  brief notes about the contestants and the 21 games with annotations aimed mainly at newcomers to chess. The game between David Isaacson and Boris Spassky played at the Tel Aviv Olympiad in 1964 is also included; this being the only game played by a South African against Spassky.

The 1972 World Championship; Reykjavik Island; Spassky versus Fischer; commentary, games, notes, statistics by P.H.Clarke and W.J.Welch, published by The Hexagon, Barnstaple 1972, 70pp

Clarke front cover

With a Foreword by P.H.Clarke, World Championship History, brief details and career records of Boris Spassky and Robert Fischer, a summary of the 1971 Candidates Series, Previous Encounters between the players, and The Match Arrangements. There follows the 21 games with commentaries and notes by Clarke, a Conclusion, statistics compiled by Welch and finally an Openings Index followed by 2 pages of adverts for Clarke's other chess works. 

Fischer-Spassky; World Championship Match & Fischer's 1971 Candidates Matches from the Soviet Point of view, compiled by Alfred Kalnajs and translated by A. Karklins, published by Alfred Kalnajs, Chicago 1973. 158pp

Karklins front cover

The main part of the book consists of the 21 games annotated exclusively by Soviet grandmasters including Botvinnik, Bronstein, Kotov, Smyslov, Tal, Flohr, Polugaevsky, Korchnoi, Stein, Karpov, etc. In addition, all of Fischer's candidates matches are included, similarly annotated by Soviet masters and grandmasters.

How Fischer Won; World Chess Championship - 1972 by C.J.S.Purdy, published by E.J. Dwyer, Sydney etc. September 1972. 101pp

Purdy front cover

Includes a Preface by Purdy, a History of World Champions through 1000 years, The Pre-Match Cold War, biographies of Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. The 21 games include commentary and notes by Purdy, followed by a discussion of the significance of the evolution of "opening theory" during the match, Chess Notation and a Chess Glossary.

Four years later Purdy published his Post-Mortem  1976 to Fischer-Spassky 1972. A Supplement to How Fischer Won and a Commentary on the Annotations in the other Books of the Match. 8pp

Purdy Post-Mortem

This included Purdy's "second thoughts" based on reading other books and annotations published on the match in English. Also included is an errata to Purdy's 1972 book on the match.

I will give details of five more lesser known books on the match next time.

                                            © Michael Clapham 2016

Collecting Chess Books

`Next to scarcity and great beauty, nothing, perhaps, imparts such stability to the worth of a book as to be addressed to a small but well-defined circle of readers. Books on chess and angling are familiar instances. They are not too numerous to dismay a collector, and every one differs from the rest in some feature sufficient to make it indispensable to a collector ambitious of completeness.´

Written in 1898, by Richard Garnett in the introduction, on page ix, to  the following work:

Prices of Books. An Inquiry into the changes in the price of books which have occurred in England at different periods by Henry B Wheatley published by George Allen, London 1898.

From an article by Alton Cook taken from the World-Telegram and Sun, New York 1951, and included on page 4 of The Treasury of Chess Lore edited by Fred Reinfeld, London 1955.

 

  

From an article  entitled Some reminiscences of a chess book collection by Dale Brandreth on pp 47-53 of Bonus Socius Jubileumuitgave voor Meindert Niemeijer, Gravenhage 1977.

`I estimate that there are no more than 1,200 serious (i.e. those who have more than 100 tournament books) tournament book collectors world-wide´

From page 4 of Collecting Chess Tournament Books- A Fascinating Hobby by Dale A. Brandreth, Yorklyn 1977. 

 

© Michael Clapham 2016