Download or read book Joseph Henry Blackburne written by Tim Harding and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During a career spanning more than 50 years, J.H. Blackburne (1841-1924) won the British Chess Championship and several international tournaments, at his peak becoming one of the world's top three chess masters. A professional player who derived his livelihood from annual tours of chess clubs in England and other countries, entertaining and teaching amateur players, he astonished his contemporaries by the ease with which he played the game without sight of the chessboard. At 21, he set a world record for such exhibitions, competing against 12 club players simultaneously, and he continued to perform "blindfold" into his sixties. This first comprehensive biography of Britain's greatest chess player of the 19th and early 20th centuries presents more than 1,000 of Blackburne's games chronologically, including all his surviving games from serious competition, annotated in varying detail. Many are masterpieces containing beautiful combinations and instructive endgame play. Blackburne's unusual family and social background are fully explored.
Download or read book Mr Blackburne s Games at Chess Selected Annotated and Arranged by Himself written by Joseph Henry Blackburne and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Blackburne s Chess Games written by Joseph Henry Blackburne and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Eminent Victorian Chess Players written by Tim Harding and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book portrays British chess life in the nineteenth century through biographical studies of ten players who shaped the modern game. From Captain Evans, inventor of the famous gambit, to Isidor Gunsberg, England's first challenger for the world championship, personal narratives are blended with game annotations to reassess players' achievements and character. The author has combined deep reading in primary sources with genealogical research to reveal new facts and correct previous misunderstandings. Major chapters on Howard Staunton and William Steinitz, in particular, highlight the tensions between Englishmen and immigrants, amateurs and professionals. The contrasting long careers of Henry Bird and Joseph Blackburne provide a thread of continuity. The lives of several other important figures in Victorian chess are also presented. More than 160 games (with diagrams), several annotated in detail, and 50 photographs and line drawings are included. Appendices provide career records for all ten; there are extensive notes, a bibliography and indexes.
Download or read book Vera Menchik written by Robert B. Tanner and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-09-18 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not only was Vera Menchik the first woman in the history of chess to compete on an equal basis with the top male players, she absolutely dominated women's chess during the last 17 years of her life. Hers was a fascinating career as an independent professional in an era where this was rare for women in any endeavor. In this book her games are brought to life utilizing her own annotations, as well as the notes of her contemporaries including Capablanca, Alekhine, Fine and others. All of her known games, as well as samples of her writings on the subject of chess are included. Beyond the technical aspect of her games, a brief biography and eulogies by her friends and colleagues reveal her life as a player and as a human being. Included are her comparisons of Russia where she was born and England where she resided as an adult, her philosophy of life, as well as her perspectives on chess in England and during World War II. Above all, a view is provided of the life of the chess professional during the golden age of Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, and Euwe.
Download or read book Soviet Chess 1917 1991 written by Andrew Soltis and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This large and magnificent work of art is both an interpretive history of Soviet chess from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 and a record of the most interesting games played. The text traces the phenomenal growth of chess from the Revolutionary days to the devastations of World War II, and then from the Golden Age of Soviet-dominated chess in the 1950s to the challenge of Bobby Fischer and the quest to find his Soviet match. Included are 249 games, each with a diagram; most are annotated and many have never before been published outside the Soviet Union. The text is augmented by photographs and includes 63 tournament and match scoretables. Also included are a bibliography, an appendix of records achieved in Soviet national championships, two indexes of openings, and an index of players and opponents.
Download or read book H E Bird written by Hans Renette and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-10-07 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No chess player of the 19th century had a longer, more varied career than Henry Edward Bird (1829-1908). After pursuing a civil career for years his love for chess prevailed. He belonged to the top level of British players for decades but he really shone at Simpson's Divan. Bird's accessibility, fierce attacking style and contempt for draws made him a people's favorite but his proud and touchy character led him into disputes with his colleagues. A very strong and widely known player, he fell into oblivion after his death. This comprehensive first biography of Bird provides a detailed account of his personal life and a deeply researched coverage of his feats at the chess board. Almost 1,200 games are included, hundreds of them published here for the first time. Nearly 450 games--many of them thrilling all-out fights--are presented with a mix of contemporary and modern annotations.
Download or read book Steinitz in London written by Tim Harding and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on new research, this biography of William Steinitz (1836-1900), the first World Chess Champion, covers his early life and career, with a fully-sourced collection of his known games until he left London in 1882. A portrait of mid-Victorian British chess is provided, including a history of the famous Simpson's Divan. Born to a poor Jewish family in Prague, Steinitz studied in Vienna, where his career really began, before moving to London in 1862, bent on conquering the chess world. During the next 20 years, he became its strongest and most innovative player, as well as an influential writer on the game. A foreigner with a quarrelsome nature, he suffered mockery and discrimination from British amateur players and journalists, which eventually drove him to immigrate to America. The final chapters cover his subsequent visits to England and the last three tournaments he played there.
Download or read book My Chess Career written by José Raúl Capablanca and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Blindfold Chess written by Eliot Hearst and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-04-03 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, blindfold chess--the art of playing without sight of the board or pieces--has produced some of the greatest feats of human memory, progressing to the extent that the world record in 2009 was 45 [and is now 46] simultaneous blindfold games. This work describes the personalities and achievements of some of blindfold chess's greatest players--including Philidor, Morphy, Blackburne, Zukertort, Pillsbury, Reti, Alekhine, Koltanowski, Najdorf and Fine, as well as present-day grandmasters such as Anand and Kramnik. Including some never before published, 444 games scores are presented, peppered with diagrams and annotations. Hints for playing blindfold, and its practical value, are also included.
Download or read book Chess Rivals of the 19th Century written by Tony Cullen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-12-21 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many historical chess books focus on individual 19th century masters and tournaments yet little is written covering the full scope of competitive chess through the era. This volume provides a comprehensive overview, with more than a third of the 300 annotated games analyzed by past masters and checked by powerful engines. Players such as Max Lange and Cochrane, known to the chess public only by the name given to a fierce attack or gambit, are brought to life. Fifty masters are each given their own chapter, with brief biographies, results and anecdotes and an endgame section for most chapters.
Download or read book The Rating of Chess Players Past and Present written by Arpad E. Elo and published by Ishi Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most extraordinary books ever written about chess and chessplayers, this authoritative study goes well beyond a lucid explanation of how todays chessmasters and tournament players are rated. Twenty years' research and practice produce a wealth of thought-provoking and hitherto unpublished material on the nature and development of high-level talent: Just what constitutes an "exceptional performance" at the chessboard? Can you really profit from chess lessons? What is the lifetime pattern of Grandmaster development? Where are the masters born? Does your child have master potential? The step-by-step rating system exposition should enable any reader to become an expert on it. For some it may suggest fresh approaches to performance measurement and handicapping in bowling, bridge, golf and elsewhere. 43 charts, diagrams and maps supplement the text. How and why are chessmasters statistically remarkable? How much will your rating rise if you work with the devotion of a Steinitz? At what age should study begin? What toll does age take, and when does it begin? Development of the performance data, covering hundreds of years and thousands of players, has revealed a fresh and exciting version of chess history. One of the many tables identifies 500 all-time chess greatpersonal data and top lifetime performance ratings. Just what does government assistance do for chess? What is the Soviet secret? What can we learn from the Icelanders? Why did the small city of Plovdiv produce three Grandmasters in only ten years? Who are the untitled dead? Did Euwe take the championship from Alekhine on a fluke? How would Fischer fare against Morphy in a ten-wins match? 1t was inevitable that this fascinating story be written, ' asserts FIDE President Max Euwe, who introduces the book and recognizes the major part played by ratings in today's burgeoning international activity. Although this is the definitive ratings work, with statistics alone sufficient to place it in every reference library, it was written by a gentle scientist for pleasurable reading -for the enjoyment of the truths, the questions, and the opportunities it reveals.
Download or read book 1000 Best Short Games of Chess written by Irving Chernev and published by Ishi Press. This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps if you owned one of the four or five great chess libraries of the world, you could, by diligent search, find most or all of these delectable nuggets. But who has either the time or the assets. So, Mr. Chernev, who has both, has provided us here with 1000 of the sweetest sugar-coated pills in all chess literature. Each introduced with a brief, pungent or witty commentary. Chess brevities have always exercised a special attraction for lovers of the royal game. It may be well that we welcome the punishment inexorably meted out for some trifling slip. Maybe it's out inherent sadism that makes us enjoy the spectacle of speedy punishment doled out to someone else, just as a fight fan thrills to a one-round knockout. Perhaps it's only our inherent laziness after all, to play over a brevity, one often need not bother to set up the pieces. Be that is it may, its popularity is universal. And here are the best of them, gathered together in one volume, for your pleasure and enjoyment. Many of us know instances galore of beginners becoming a cropper after only a few moves through the "scholar's mate" or some other absurdity not necessarily so primitive. Yet it would be quite wrong to assume that only duffers suffer the ignominy of a speedy knockout. The victim may well be a famous master, as you will discover to your surprise, delight and, most of all, your deep, deep satisfaction. After all, if Morphy can be mated in 12 moves, Capablanca defeated in 13, and Lasker blitzed in 14, who are we to hide our heads in shame?
Download or read book Louis Paulsen written by Hans Renette and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-03-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louis Paulsen (1833-1891) was one of the 19th century's strongest chess players and a world record holder in blindfold chess. He maintained an unbeaten record in matches, created several opening systems and was an originator of the positional approach to the game. This extensive biography--the first in English--explores Paulsen's life and career and includes 719 of his games, presented here with both contemporary and modern comments.
Download or read book The Modern Chess Instructor written by Wilhelm Steinitz and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Brilliant Originality of Steinitz More than 125 years ago, one of the first great chess books appeared. The Modern Chess Instructor, Part I, written by then world champion Wilhelm Steinitz, was released in 1889. It was his magnum opus, setting forth for the first time the principles of modern chess. It is no exaggeration to say that Steinitz’s writings have influenced every great player since. As American grandmaster Andy Soltis notes in his foreword to this classic: The bulk of The Modern Chess Instructor is devoted to opening analysis and annotated games that illustrate the analysis. But it is filled with original Steinitz ideas. This may be why Bobby Fischer was his greatest 20th century fan. Fischer was always looking for forgotten opening moves. In MCI and Steinitz’s International Chess Magazine he found some that he later revived in tournaments, such as 9.Nh3 in the main line of the Two Knights Defense and 5.Qe2 in the Petroff (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.e5 Ne4). Of course, the opening analysis of MCI is dated and the openings are out of fashion. But unpopular openings are not necessarily bad openings. Ask Magnus Carlsen. When he played 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 against Sergey Karjakin in 2016 title match, it was the first time these moves had appeared in more than a century of world championship games. This 21st century edition has converted the archaic English descriptive notation to algebraic and reformatted the text so that it conforms to the expectations of the 21st century chessplayer. The Modern Chess Instructor’s rare second part, published in 1895, has also been added. The result is a genuine treasure trove of original ideas coupled with exposition of the foundation of modern chess theory. Every chessplayer will find The Modern Chess Instructor enjoyable and instructive, a journey back to the theoretical roots of modern chess.
Download or read book Capablanca Move by Move written by Cyrus Lakdawala and published by Everyman Chess. This book was released on with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jose Raul Capablanca is a chess legend, world champion and quite simply one of the greatest players in the history of the game. His achievements and seemingly effortless style of play won many admirers, and his legacy includes a treasure of instructive games. Studying Capablanca's play is a must for any aspiring chess player. For Cyrus Lakdawala, it was a key factor in his chess development and improvement, and in this book he revisits many of his favourite Capablanca games. Lakdawala examines Capablanca's skills in attack, defence, counter-attack, exploiting imbalances, accumulating advantages and, of course, his legendary endgame play. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to improve your chess skills and knowledge.
Download or read book Chinese Chess written by C. K. Lai and published by Raymond Keene. This book was released on 2005 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: C. K. Lai is a well known Xiangqi player and enthusiast who has written and translated a dozen books on the subject, and is still writing, though less frequently nowadays. There was a time when he produced two books a year, among them his first book Chinese Chess, An Introduction To The Openings, Checkmate In Two, and Chess Of The Wuzhi Mountain (in collaboration with Mr. Shu Ming Li of San Francisco). Translations include Chinese Chess, The Endgame Technique, Victories All The Way, and Fifty Games Of GM Li Laiqun. With a few Xiangqi friends he promoted the game in Britain some two decades ago, helping to create the UK Chinese Chess Association. He is certainly at the forefront of promotion of the game in Britain. One of C. K. Lai's high achievements in Xiangqi competitions was in 1994 when he won the 11th European Xiangqi Championship held in Amsterdam. He also won on several occasions the UK Xiangqi Championship. He is Editor of Chinese Chess Cyber Newsletter, a simple web site based in London which attracts many Xiangqi followers.
