Fischer and Tal, two scarce games collections

Games of Bobby Fischer, Philippines, circa 1972.

This pamphlet, of 24 pages, has very little information on its origins. There is no date, no mention of an author, editor, compiler, annotator, publisher or printer, nothing. The only clues are the references to Fischer as World Champion, therefore dating this no earlier than 1972, and the price of P2.00 (two pesos) on the front cover indicating that this was sold in the Philippines.

A one page biography of Robert James Fischer is followed by 25 games from 1965 to 1971 in no particular order. 

 

The games are lightly annotated and most include one diagram. These diagrams are, unfortunately, difficult to study due to the strange depiction of the white pieces on white squares and black pieces on black squares. 

I can find no record of this publication in any bibliography, catalogue or library including the Cleveland Public Library and the the Royal Library at The Hague.   

50 Selected Games of Mikhail Tal (World Chess Champion - 1960).

Again there is virtually no information in this typescript pamphlet to reveal its identity, not even a price. The poorly written introduction is signed R. G. Wade, and two games from 1971 are included, although both are dated 1972; other than that there are no clues as to its age or origins.

The table of contents is chopped off so that the final two games are not listed. Tal's tournament record on page 3 lists events up to 1967 although games are included up to the 39th Soviet Championships in 1971. 

The fifty games - all wins for Tal - have no notes and no diagrams.  The earliest game is dated 1944, against Gligoric, in the East vs West match. This date seems improbable but I have been unable to trace the game.

There are numerous errors in the game headings; wrong tournaments, wrong dates, misspelt opponents names, and there are also some discrepancies in the recorded moves compared to other sources. For example, the game between Niemela and Tal on page 9 has one extra move for each player at the end compared with the games in the databases at chessgames.com and 365chess.com.

The game against Gligoric on page 21 ends after white's 33rd move; however, other sources continue this game to move 43, e.g. chessgames.com and 365chess.com

This publication is also absent from all bibliographies, catalogues and libraries that I have checked.

These two pamphlets were probably privately published, seemingly secretly, and it is a mystery how they were distributed and sold. 

                                       © Michael Clapham 2016

More from Chess Reader

Chess Reader 1955 to 1966 by Ken Whyld.

I note that this periodical is included in Section 1 in Betts' Bibliography, i.e. the bibliography section rather than the periodicals section, and the last issues published by The Chess Player in 1965 and 1966 are not recorded.

The best tournament books? 

 

In the Winter 1955-6 issue, page 46 (page 46) Whyld was asked by a correspondent to recommend the six best tournament books for someone with little space or cash, and, after stipulating that he had ignored books "whose scarcity gives them an inflated price", Whyld  nominated the following: New York 1889, Hastings 1895, New York 1927, Nottingham 1936, Saltsjobaden 1946 (Pirc) and Moscow 1947 (Botvinnik).

Bearing in mind the stipulation, to today's collectors, this is a very surprising selection, and even in the 1950's some of these were scarce and expensive. There is also more than one book on some of these tournaments and it is not clear which particular book Whyld had in mind. Let's look at these individually.

New York 1889. I assume that Whyld intended The Book of the Sixth American Chess Congress, by W. Steinitz, New York 1891, rather than the two pamphlets with 42 games each published by W. W. Morgan, London 1889. Steinitz's book had a limited edition of 500 copies, and this, together with its impressive size and quality of production, and the excellent annotations by Steinitz, has resulted in this becoming one of the most sought after and expensive tournament books. From the outset it was a collector's item; copy No. 1 was offered to the highest bidder and was sold to Mr. C. H. Bruel for $30 in addition to the normal subscription of $10. The book today is valued at around  £500.

Hastings 1895. There are two books on this event; The Hastings Chess Tournament, 1895, edited by Horace F. Cheshire, London 1896, and the possibly superior Das Internationale Schachturnier zu Hastings by Emil Schallopp, Leipzig 1896. Tony Gillam once advised me that the annotations in Schallopp's book were much better than those in Cheshire's book. Current value around £75-£100 each.

Some of the competitors at Hastings 1895

New York 1927. Here there are three books, two by Alekhine: Das New Yorker Schachturnier 1927, Berlin/Leipzig 1927 and Mezhdunarodnyy shakhmatnyy turnir v New Yorke 1927, Moscow/Leningrad 1930, and Tartakower's  New Yorkskiy match-turnir 1927, Leningrad 1927.  The first book in English on this event was Jack Spence's limited edition of 200 copies published in 1956 (Betts 25-84). Current value of Alekhine's books £40, Tartakower, £20.

Nottingham 1936. Two main works; The Book of the Nottingham International Chess Tournament, with Annotations and Analysis by Dr. A. Alekhine, edited by W. H. Watts, London 1937 and Schach-Grossturnier Nottingham 1936 by Hans Kmoch, Vienna 1938. I suspect that Whyld intended the Alekhine book here and for New York 1927. Current value of the Alekhine book around £100 with dust-jacket. Kmoch, around £25.

Saltsjobaden 1948. Whyld specifies the book by Vasja  Pirc here, Meduzonski turnir Saltsjoben 1948, Zagreb 1949, in preference to the other main work by Gideon Ståhlberg. Current value around £25.

Moscow 1947. Again Whyld specifies Mikhail Botvinnik's book, Mezhdunarodnyy schakmatnyy turnir pamyati M. I. Chigorina, Moscow 1950. There is also a book by F. Chalupetzky. Current value around £25.

More best books 

 

 



Summer 1955, page 26 (page 26). In the review of Know the Game - Chess by H. G. Arnold, Whyld discusses one of his favourite topics, the unsuitability of most beginners books for beginners, and then declares that "B. H. Wood has written what is, in my opinion, the best guide for the absolute new-comer to the game", obviously referring to Wood's Easy Guide to Chess, Sutton Coldfield 1942 and many reprints.












Spring 1956, page 3 (page 63). Whyld gives what he considers to be the best end-game books in five languages: those written by Berger (German), Cheron (French), Czerniak (Spanish), Fine (English), and Rabinovich (Russian).

 






Spring 1957, page 36 (page 96). A Guide to the Chess Openings by Leonard Barden, London 1957. "In my opinion, this is, for the club player, easily the best English-language book in print on the openings"

















Spring 1958, page 54 (page 114). My Best Games of Chess 1935-1957 by V Smyslov, London 1958. "One of the best chess books to appear anywhere in the last twenty years".













 




Summer 1959, page 34 (page 154). Emanuel Lasker, the Life of a Chess Master by Dr. J. Hannak, London 1959. After discussing the previous lack of a complete biography of Lasker, "perhaps the greatest player yet seen", Whyld states "It is fitting, therefore, that the only full biography written about Lasker should be perhaps the best written about any chessplayer".














Winter 1960, page 20 (page 204). Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces by Hans Kmoch, New York 1960. This review is by W. H. Cozens who begins: "Ask any really strong chessplayer what is the best extant collection of annotated games, and it is an even chance that he will reply Rubinstein Gewinnt. The combination of Rubinstein the player with Kmoch the annotator has hardly been equalled - except perhaps by Alekhine the player plus Alekhine the annotator"








 








Autumn 1961, page 57 (page 241). Mikhail Tal's Best Games of Chess, by P. H. Clarke, London 1961. "It is a measure of this book's merit that it could well be Bell's best games collection since they first published Alekhine's book". [in 1927]
















Christmas 1963, page 50 (page 298). Chess Problems: Introduction to an Art, by Lipton, Matthews and Rice, London 1963. "certain to be hailed by many as the chess book of the year"











 






February 1966, page 9 (page 443). The Art of Attack in Chess by V. Vuković, London 1965. Bernard Cafferty, in his review, states "this is one of the finest chess books ever, certainly the finest book of the decade". 











Most of the above books are possibly, even today, among the best in their field, but demand for these classics is low and most can be obtained very cheaply. 

....and the worst annotator

 

In the February 1966 issue page 12 (page 446), Whyld comments that "Bogoljubow was noted for being just about the worst annotator who ever lived"

Finally for now: 

 

Christmas 1963, page 62 (page 310). The Complete Chess Player, by Edward Young, London 1963. In this very last book review in the run of Chess Reader published by Ken Whyld (he continued to contribute to the issues published by The Chess Player),  Whyld does not appear to realise that Edward Young is a pseudonym for Fred Reinfeld, perhaps this was not so widely acknowledged at the time. In the generally negative review, Whyld does note "It is in fact not badly written - about beta-Reinfeld level...but it is quite useless for beginners", and after further criticism he wraps up with "words fail me. The cover is pretty"

There is much more of interest in Chess Reader (to me at least) and I may return to this periodical later.

© Michael Clapham 2016

    





 
 

Chess Reader

I have been rereading Chess Reader recently, the periodical edited and published by Ken Whyld, which ran from Spring 1955 to October 1963. Two later issues were published by The Chess Player (Tony Gillam) of Nottingham in 1965 and 1966.

Described by Dr. Meindert Niemeijer in the Foreword as a magazine for chess bibliophiles, this periodical largely consisted of reviews of contemporary chess literature with a few related articles. Most of the reviews are by Ken Whyld although other reviewers included William Winter, James Gilchrist, Leonard Barden, David Hooper, Assiac (Heinrich Fraenkel), W. H. Cozens, and in the later issues Bernard Cafferty and Christopher Williams. 

Ken Whyld

The editor had a passion for chess history and literature, and, while the reviews were written primarily to discuss the merits or otherwise of the books for contemporary chess players, there was often an element of evaluating the importance and permanent value of the book in chess literature as a whole, and it is interesting to compare the reviews of 50 or 60 years ago to today's assessment of these works.

Original copies of Chess Reader are virtually impossible to find but a reprint by Publishing House Moravian Chess, Olomouc, is readily obtainable. 

This periodical is packed with Ken Whyld's entertaining and forthright reviews and is a rich source of material for chess literature enthusiasts (and my blog). Some of the items that I particularly noted follow, and I will give the date and page numbers of the original magazines, which I do not have, as well as the page number in brackets from the reprint, which I have used.

The permanent value of chess books and publications by MacGibbon and Kee.

The Spring 1955 issue gets off to a lively start and includes a long and interesting review, on page 7 (page 7), of World Chess Championship 1954 by H. Golombek, published by MacGibbon and Kee, London 1954. In this review Whyld raises the matter of tournament and match books as having greater permanent value and being more highly prized by connoisseurs than by the average chess player, upon whom publishers mainly rely. Publishers had consequently generally avoided tournament and match books and had concentrated on games collections and general treatises "works in fact of less permanent value to chess, but easier to sell".  

This was the third chess book published by MacGibbon and Kee, following:

Championship Chess, Match Tournament for the Absolute Chess Championship of the U.S.S.R., Leningrad-Moscow 1941, by M. M. Botvinnik, London 1950, and One Hundred Selected Games by M. M. Botvinnik, London 1951. 

The only other chess books that I can find by the same publisher are:

World Chess Championship 1957 by H. Golombek, London 1957.

Modern Opening Chess Strategy by H. Golombek, London 1959.

The Delights of Chess by Assiac (Heinrich Fraenkel), London 1960.

 

 

English chess libraries?

Page 19 (page 19) of the Summer 1955 issue has a review of The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess by I. Chernev, New York 1955. Whyld calls Chernev the "believe-it-or-not" man of American chess, presumably implying that he is an unreliable author. He later refers to the dust-jacket of this book of brevities, which declares that if we owned one of the four or five great chess libraries in the world, "you could, by diligent research, find most or all of these delectable nuggets". Whyld goes on to say "there are, to my knowledge, four libraries in this country from which most or all could be found". I would hazard a guess at Whyld and Golombek, but who were the other two?

 

Britain's best living chess author?

On Page 23 (page 23) of the Summer 1955 issue, in a review of Kings of Chess by William Winter, London 1954, Whyld characterizes William Winter as "Britains best living chess author. No other writer captures Winter's cultured and literary style and is also able to annotate games in a manner so helpful to the average player". Winter died shortly after this was written but not before contributing a review of Emanuel Lasker, Chess Champion by J. Gilchrist, Nottingham 1955, for this magazine, Winter 1955-6, page 48 (page 48).

 

Indian chess magazines?

Page 32 (page 32) of the Summer 1955 issue has a review of Indian Chess Bulletin, Organ of the Correspondence Chess Association of India. In this, Whyld refers to four short lived pre-war Indian chess magazines, but it is not clear which periodicals he is referring to. The following are recorded in bibliographies but two are post-war:

                                                                           Betts      De Felice's
                                                                                      Chess Periodicals

The Indian Chess Magazine        1922   1 issue        7-66         1133
The Indian Chess Magazine        1931   1 issue        7-73         1135
Indian Chess                             1947   1 issue      30-24         2994 

 (This is dated 1925 in Chess Periodicals)
Indian Chess Magazine             1949-50 12 issues   7-121        1132

Chess Periodicals also lists no. 1835, Picnic Magazine: A Journal of Literature, Science, Chess and the Drama, published in Calcutta in 1848.

Incidentally, Indian Chess Bulletin, the subject of this review, is not recorded in Betts , nor is Indian Chess Magazine,  published in Bombay in 1964, according to Chess Periodicals No. 1136.   

 

The best American chess book since 1945? 

Following a review of Trophy Chess by Larry Evans, on page 34 (page 94) of the Summer 1957 issue, Whyld implied that this was the second best chess book published in the USA since 1945 (see Spring 1958, page 60 (page 120)).  So what did he consider the best? I have not found the definitive answer but there are clues.

In the Autumn 1958 issue, page 8 (page 128), Whyld states "Larry Evans is undoubtedly the most important chess author in the USA today". This may raise a few eyebrows but Whyld quickly qualifies this by saying that "the competition is not fierce", and gives brief appraisals of a few American authors. "Chernev is always interesting and entertaining, Horowitz always professionally competent, Fine variable but with outstanding moment". There is no mention of Reinfeld.

So could it be Reuben Fine's Chess Marches On!, New York 1945, hailed as "the finest chess book that has come from U.S.A." by Whyld's friend and colleague  E. G. R. Cordingley, albeit in an advert, on the back of his Chess Students Quarterly for November 1946;  or perhaps Fine's The Middle Game in Chess, New York 1952, praised as "one of the most valuable contributions to chess theory in recent years", and "one of the best chess books on theory ever produced", in a review by D. A. Yanofsky in The British Chess Magazine for January 1954, page 15.

Maybe it was one of Reinfeld's from his pre-potboiler period, such as Tarrasch's Best Games of Chess, Philadelphia 1947, again described by Cordingley, in Chess Students Quarterly, December 1947, page 171, as "one of the best chess books of this century". 

Long articles by guest contributors were a feature of the early issues and the Autumn 1955 issue has a three and a half page article by François le Lionnais, on pages 35 to 38, in which he discusses chess book collecting and some of the great chess libraries. This is followed by two articles from D. J. Morgan, in the Winter 1955-6 and Spring 1956 issues, detailing all of the books in the A. C. White Christmas Series, giving valuable information on these highly sought after chess books. A further article on the Overbrook Press series of chess books, under the nom de plume of Guynebans, was included on pages 13 to 15 (pages 73 to 75) of the Spring 1956 issue.

More from Chess Reader next time.

 

                                        © Michael Clapham 2016

Will H. Lyons. Purveyor of chess goods

William Henry Lyons (1849-1932), of Newport Kentucky, was probably the world's foremost chess literature dealer for around 30 years at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He also wrote a treatise on chess problems; Chess-nut burrs: how they are formed and how to open them, which he published in Newport in 1886.

I was very much intrigued by the footnote on page 172 of R. B. Swinton's Chess for Beginners and the Beginnings of Chess:

Swinton's accusation that Will H. Lyons had `ransacked the bookstores of England, Scotland, various German States and several other countries´ is in fact substantiated in Lyons' own catalogues. 

His Catalogue No.7. Chess Requisites and Works on Chess, issued in 1897, in which he claims to have the largest stock of chess goods in the world, states:

`My agents in the book centres of Europe constantly supply me with Rare and Out-of-Print Works´

`No pains or expense have been spared in seeking for and securing rare and out-of-print works.´

`All that was of value has been purchased.´

`All languages are represented, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, German etc. etc.´

`The largest collection of Chess Magazines ever known is offered.´

`I have searched the World for books and have "cornered the market" in the old and scarce works´.

`I have made America the great source of supply for Chess literature.´

etc. etc. 

Lyons' 80 page catalogue, which lists around 1,000 items, certainly backs up these boasts, and he undoubtedly offered the greatest selection of chess literature ever assembled in one catalogue. Lyons' catalogues were only surpassed when Bernard Quaritch also `cornered the market´ by buying up most of the Rimington-Wilson collection sold at Sotheby's in 1928, and offered them in his Catalogue of Rare and Valuable Works relating to the History and Theory of the Game of Chess issued in 1929. This included 1,657 items.

 

Some sample pages from Lyons' 1897 Catalogue will give an indication of the quantity and quality of his chess literature stock.

Notwithstanding this treasure trove of chess literature, and his world wide network of customers, the chess book trade at the time appears to have been rather slow. Lyons' Catalogue No. 10. Chess Requisites and Works on Chess, issued nearly twelve years later in July 1909, has 96 pages and circa 1,240 items, including many previously listed in Catalogue No. 7. 

Lyons no doubt replaced sold items but it is clear that many items offered for sale in 1909 were unsold from 1897 as can be seen from these pages from the 1897 (left) and 1909 (right) catalogues.

Today most of the items in Lyons' catalogues would be snapped up in a jiffy, and, going round second-hand bookshops these days, I nearly always find that a Will H. Lyons has been there before me.  

                                         © Michael Clapham