On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 05:17:11 GMT, wrote:

I live in a very small town, so I have to buy books by mail
or internet, sight unseen. I have heard that two very good
books on chess are "My System" by Nimzovich, and "Chess
Primer" by Capablanca. When searching for them on the
internet, I often run across books that sound almost the
same, i.e. "A Praxis of My System" by N., and "Chess
Fundamentals" by C. Can anyone tell me if the latter are
completely different books, or different versions, or
alternate titles for essentially the same book? The latter
seem to be easier to find and cheaper, but I'd rather pay a
few bucks extra if the former are significantly better
books. Thank you.

"My System" is an exposition of the principles of chess strategy
according to Nimzovich. It includes mostly postions and game
fragments with (I believe) some complete games. "A Praxis of My
System" (sometimes just called "Chess Praxis") is a collection of
complete games played by Nimzovich that illustrate the principles
expounded in "My System". Each game is annotated by Nimzovich mostly
focusing the comments at the points in the game where one specific "My
System" principles are illustrated.

There are recent editions of both of these books, which cleaned up
some of Nimzovich's clumsy English, converted the notation from
descriptive to algebraic and provided additional, more modern examples
of the principles.

As far as the Capablaca books: they are different books, but exactly
what they cover and whether there is much overlap between the two I
don't know.