Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?
Thanks,

Marco


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"Marco" wrote in message
news:d72e65dfe63d41e389d75682321d3a11.122502@mygat e.mailgate.org...

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?
Thanks,

Marco


I would recommend Henry A. Davidson's "Short History of Chess", 228 pp. My
edition is a Tartan Book, an imprint of David McKay. It doesn't seem to be
plentiful at Amazon, but there are 16 of them at abebooks
(http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearchPL).

"Bob Lablaw" wrote in message
news:1069795375.377917@athprx02

I would recommend Henry A. Davidson's "Short History of Chess", 228 pp. My
edition is a Tartan Book, an imprint of David McKay.

Thanks, I'll look for it. Is there any other book you would
recommend which covers some of the the post-war decades as well?

It doesn't seem to be
plentiful at Amazon, but there are 16 of them at abebooks
(http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearchPL).

Another good place to look is www.bookfinder.com. I often find
good bargains there.

Marco


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"Marco" wrote in message
news:61917cf87cbb06c987c8f9851218f60f.122502@mygat e.mailgate.org...

"Bob Lablaw" wrote in message
news:1069795375.377917@athprx02

I would recommend Henry A. Davidson's "Short History of Chess", 228 pp.
My
edition is a Tartan Book, an imprint of David McKay.

Thanks, I'll look for it. Is there any other book you would
recommend which covers some of the the post-war decades as well?

It doesn't seem to be
plentiful at Amazon, but there are 16 of them at abebooks
(http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearchPL).

Another good place to look is www.bookfinder.com. I often find
good bargains there.

Marco

I think I misinterpreted what you meant by a history book. Davidson's book
is not about chess players. It covers such things as the history of the
pieces, rules, etc., how it spread throughout the world. Things like that.
From what you said about the postwar decades, you probably want a book about
players, which probably also discusses the development of style.

Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess
by Harry Golombek

Rather old, published in 1977, but excellent.

Dik



"Marco" schreef in bericht
news:d72e65dfe63d41e389d75682321d3a11.122502@mygat e.mailgate.org...
Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?
Thanks,

Marco


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

"Bob Lablaw" wrote in message
news:1069850597.499811@athprx02

I think I misinterpreted what you meant by a history book. Davidson's book
is not about chess players. It covers such things as the history of the
pieces, rules, etc., how it spread throughout the world. Things like that.
From what you said about the postwar decades, you probably want a book about
players, which probably also discusses the development of style.

Well, I'm actually interested in everything , both a history of the
chess pieces and rules, and of how the game has been played.
Thanks,

Marco



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Marco wrote (2003-11-25 08:15:13 PST):
Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of
chess?

Bob Lablaw wrote (2003-11-25 13:25:12 PST):
I would recommend Henry A. Davidson's "Short History
of Chess", 228 pp.

Marco wrote (2003-11-25 16:10:18 PST):
Is there any other book you would recommend which
covers some of the the post-war decades as well?

Bob Lablaw wrote (2003-11-26 04:45:02 PST):
I think I misinterpreted what you meant by a history
book. Davidson's book is not about chess players. It
covers such things as the history of the pieces, rules,
etc., how it spread throughout the world. Things like
that. From what you said about the postwar decades, you
probably want a book about players, which probably also
discusses the development of style.

D.A.H. Kruyt wrote (2003-11-26 08:04:43 PST):

Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess by Harry Golombek
Rather old, published in 1977, but excellent.

_
Golombek's Encyclopedia, as the name suggests, is a
reference book rather than a history, and not the
best. The Oxford Companion is almost universally
recognised as the best reference book in the English
language.

A chess history book by Golombek (A History of Chess)
did appear in 1976. There is also Chess, The History
of a Game by Richard Eales, a book that is perhaps
best for learning about the evolution of the popularity
of chess. Hartston's 1985 book, The Kings of Chess,
and Edward Winter's 1981 book, World Chess Champions,
are better for learning about the world champions.
Fine's 1976 book, The World's Great Chess Games is
a relatively cheap book that is (I believe) still in
print, has some history, and a lot of famous games.
For a discussion of the development of style, I imagine
that it would be difficult to think of a better place
to look than Euwe and Nunn's 1997 book, The Development
of Chess Style.

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 16:15:12 +0000 (UTC), "Marco"
wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?
Thanks,

Marco

I've got the Oxford book on Chess, and it is great - as is the Mammoth
Book of Chess.... but you're after history.

Isn't Garry's book supposed to be very good (although you'll have to
wait for the later books to get a broader picture)


kafooey
-
- http://www.pluggedout.com/blog

kafooey wrote:
"Marco" wrote:
Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?

Isn't Garry's book supposed to be very good (although you'll have to
wait for the later books to get a broader picture)

The Kasparov/Plisetsky books are reasonable but not great for the history
of the game. All the historical books are, I believe written by Plisetsky
and apparently suffer from having been written without consulting the
original language sources. This means that a lot of famous quotes have
been translated from, say, English, into Russian and then back to English,
so have changed from their accepted versions. For details, see the
various reviews around on the net. The chess content of the books seems
to me to be much better.

I suppose the test of whether the historical parts of the book are good
is, `Would you buy the book if most of the games and the analysis were
deleted?' (That is, would it be worthwhile if it were a history of world
champions with a few illustrative games?) For me, the answer to this
question is, `no.'

Incidentally, the second volume was due out in the UK the day before
yesterday. Amazon haven't noticed and www.chess.co.uk doesn't seem to be
responding at the moment, so I can't check.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Accelerated Impossible Sword (TM):
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ it's like a razor-sharp blade but it
can't exist and it's twice as fast!

Subject: History of chess

On 25 November 2003 "Marco" asked in
Message-id: ilgate.org

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of chess?
Thanks,

Marco


--If you can get your hands on it, A History of Chess, written by H.J.R.
Murray and originally published by Oxford University Press in 1913, is a
scholarly work. It was reprinted more than a decade ago by the Benjamin Press
in Northampton, Massachusetts, with an ISBN number of 0-936-317-01-9.

Harold James Ruthven Murray was the oldest son of Sir James Murray, the editor
and founder of the Oxford English Dictionary. In 1952 he published A History of
Board Games Other Than Chess. After his death in May 1955, A Short History of
Chess was found in manuscript and published by Oxford University Press in 1963.

George Mirijanian