Download or read book Kings Commoners and Knaves written by Edward Winter and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cornucopia of games, positions, biographies, mysteries, howlers, reviews, quotations, etc., featuring a cast of hundreds from the chess world of today and yesteryear -- the champions and the under-achievers; the scholars and the bunglers; the saints and the sinners. Every page provides fascinating, little-known material from an author who is prepared to name names.
Download or read book Kings Commoners and Cornkisters written by and published by . This book was released on 2008-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Great Tales from English History written by Robert Lacey and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2004-06-03 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With insight, humor and fascinating detail, Lacey brings brilliantly to life the stories that made England -- from Ethelred the Unready to Richard the Lionheart, the Venerable Bede to Piers the Ploughman. The greatest historians are vivid storytellers, Robert Lacey reminds us, and in Great Tales from English History, he proves his place among them, illuminating in unforgettable detail the characters and events that shaped a nation. In this volume, Lacey limns the most important period in England's past, highlighting the spread of the English language, the rejection of both a religion and a traditional view of kingly authority, and an unstoppable movement toward intellectual and political freedom from 1387 to 1689. Opening with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and culminating in William and Mary's "Glorious Revolution," Lacey revisits some of the truly classic stories of English history: the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V's skilled archers defeated a French army three times as large; the tragic tale of the two young princes locked in the Tower of London (and almost certainly murdered) by their usurping uncle, Richard III; Henry VIII's schismatic divorce, not just from his wife but from the authority of the Catholic Church; "Bloody Mary" and the burning of religious dissidents; Sir Francis Drake's dramatic, if questionable, part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; and the terrible and transformative Great Fire of London, to name but a few. Here Anglophiles will find their favorite English kings and queens, villains and victims, authors and architects - from Richard II to Anne Boleyn, the Virgin Queen to Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys to Christopher Wren, and many more. Continuing the "eminently readable, highly enjoyable" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) history he began in volume I of Great Tales from English History, Robert Lacey has drawn on the most up-to-date research to present a taut and riveting narrative, breathing life into the most pivotal characters and exciting landmarks in England's history.
Download or read book Chess Facts and Fables written by Edward Winter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2005-11-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chess has developed such a large body of myth and folklore that sorting fact from fiction is not easy. As with Edward Winter's previous volumes in his "Chess Notes" series--Chess Explorations (1996), Kings, Commoners and Knaves (1999) and A Chess Omnibus (2003)--this work (the first from McFarland) features in-depth research into chess lore, corrections of popular misconceptions, biographical notes on famous players, and authenticated quotations. There is a rich selection of forgotten games, and many items include contributions from the author's correspondents worldwide. Written for the general chess enthusiast and the devotee of chess history, the book is illustrated with 219 rare photographs and 210 diagrams of chess positions. The book concludes with a comprehensive bibliography and indexes of players, games and openings, illustrations, and general subjects.
Download or read book The Chess Artist written by J. C. Hallman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of The Professor and the Madman, Longitude, and The Orchid Thief, Hallman transforms an obsessive quest for obscure things into a compulsively readable and entertaining weaving of travelogue, journalism, and chess history. In the tiny Russian province of Kalmykia, obsession with chess has reached new heights. Its leader, a charismatic and eccentric millionaire/ex--car salesman named Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is a former chess prodigy and the most recent president of FIDE, the world's controlling chess body. Despite credible allegations of his involvement in drug running, embezzlement, and murder, the impoverished Kalmykian people have rallied around their leader's obsession---chess is played on Kalmykian prime-time television and is compulsory in Kalmykian schools. In addition, Kalmyk women have been known to alter their traditional costumes of pillbox hats and satin gowns to include chessboard-patterned sashes. The Chess Artist is both an intellectual journey and first-rate travel writing dedicated to the love of chess and all of its related oddities, writer and chess enthusiast J. C. Hallman explores the obsessive hold chess exerts on its followers by examining the history and evolution of the game and the people who dedicate their lives to it. Together with his friend Glenn Umstead, an African-American chessmaster who is arguably as chess obsessed as Ilyumzhinov, Hallman tours New York City's legendary chess district, crashes a Princeton Math Department game party, challenges a convicted murderer to a chess match in prison, and travels to Kalmykia, where they are confronted with members of the Russian intelligence service, beautiful translators who may be spies, seven-year-old chess prodigies, and the sad blight of a land struggling toward capitalism.
Download or read book W H K Pollock written by Olimpiu G. Urcan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-05-24 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During his first years in America, William Henry Krause Pollock participated in some of the most important American chess events of the 19th century. Pollock played matches against strong players like Charles Moehle, John L. McCutcheon, Jackson W. Showalter and Eugene Delmar. This biography analyzes in great detail Pollock's chess play, as well as his career and life in England, Ireland and America. His American years unveil even more about the American chess landscape during the first half of 1890s, one of the most interesting periods in American chess history. Offered here are an unprecedented collection of annotated games played by Pollock (around 500), historical photographs and line drawings. Sources include historical chess journals and magazines with chess columns from America, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Download or read book Endgame written by Frank Brady and published by Crown. This book was released on 2012-01-17 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Who was Bobby Fischer? In this “nuanced perspective of the chess genius” (Los Angeles Times), an acclaimed biographer chronicles his meteoric rise and confounding fall, with an afterword containing newly discovered details about Fischer’s life. Possessing an IQ of 181 and remarkable powers of concentration, Bobby Fischer memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only thirteen when he became the youngest chess master in U.S. history. But his strange behavior started early. In 1972, at the historic Cold War showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds of petty demands that nearly ended the competition. It was merely a prelude to what was to come. Arriving back in the United States to a hero’s welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he went—a figure as exotic and improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced. Commercial sponsorship offers poured in, ultimately topping $10 million—but Bobby demurred. Instead, he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature. Bobby reemerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a multi-million dollar rematch—but when the dust settled, he was a wanted man, transformed into an international fugitive because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S. sanctions. Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards, Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitive—one drawn increasingly to the bizarre. Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, Endgame is unique in that it limns Bobby Fischer’s entire life—an odyssey that took the chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the world” to notorious recluse.
Download or read book Danish Dynamite written by Karsten Müller and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White Goes for the Jugular The Danish Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3, is one of the most aggressive chess openings ever devised. Dynamite was invented by a Swede, Alfred Nobel. The book you are reading now, however, was not written by Nordic players. Instead, Grandmaster Karsten Müller and FIDE Master Martin Voigt bring a touch of German method to the analysis of the explosive group of classical open games where White goes for out- and-out attack based on an early e4, d4 and Bc4, often with c2-c3 to follow. Müller and Voigt do not confine themselves to the Danish Gambit alone but they examine a whole family of related opening variations that share some common characteristics. Most importantly, White is ready to offer some material (a pawn or two, sometimes a piece or more). White goes for the jugular and if Black is not careful he will not even reach the middle game, let alone an endgame...A guiding principle for the authors of this book is that White will play attacking chess, fighting for the initiative at every move. If Black does not meet the challenge in an equally determined way, he will surely lose. This is the epub edition of the popular book published in 2003.
Download or read book Jose Raul Capablanca written by Miguel A. Sánchez and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the most complete and thorough biography of Jose Raul Capablanca, one of the greatest players in the history of chess. Beginning with his family background, birth, childhood and introduction to the game in Cuba, it examines his life and play as a young man; follows his evolution as a player and rise to prominence, first as challenger and then world champion; his loss of the title to Alekhine and his efforts to recapture the championship in the last years of his too-short life. What emerges is a portrait of a complex man with far-ranging interests and concerns, in stark contrast to his robotic reputation as "the chess machine." Meticulously researched, utilizing many sources available only in Capablanca's home country, it puts truth to legend regarding a man who stood astride the chess world in of its most dynamic and dramatic eras. Numerous games and diagrams complement the text, as do a wealth of photographs.
Download or read book Chess Theory from Stamma to Steinitz 1735 1894 written by Frank Hoffmeister and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-08-11 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most chess biographies present the games of famous players--but not their writings. Filling that gap, this book begins with Syrian master and author of chess studies Philip Stamma, and finishes with the first world champion William Steinitz. The main novelties in opening, middlegame and endgame theory in the 160 year period are examined and biographical sketches put the contributions of more than 30 masters into context. The author presents many new insights--for example, regarding the origins of the Ponziani Opening, the Dutch Defense and the Petroff Defense. French star La Bourdonnais used other sources for almost every part of his Nouveau Traite. Morphy's analysis of the Philidor Defense was faulty and Anderssen's play included many positional ideas. Harrwitz and Neumann published modern treatises long before Steinitz came out with his Modern Chess Instructor. Many ending themes belong to less well-known authors, such as Cozio, Chapais, van Zuylen van Nyevelt, Sarratt, Kling and Horwitz, Berger and Salvio.
Download or read book Najdorf Life and Games written by Alexander Beliavsky and published by Batsford Books. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miguel Najdorf has been described as a flamboyant poet of the chessboard. A celebrated Grandmaster, his playing career spanned six decades. He is perhaps best known for the eponymous Najdorf opening variation of the Sicilian Defence – often used to good effect by Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. A highly influential chess writer he won many International tournaments although never played for the World Championship. Here we have an informed biography complemented by one hundred selected games that demonstrate his originality and brilliance. The games are fully annotated by the well-respected authors.
Download or read book Eminent Victorian Chess Players written by Tim Harding and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-12-03 with total page 406 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 Aron Nimzowitsch written by Per Skjoldager and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest chess legends of all time, Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935), is best known for founding the Hypermodernism school of chess, which emerged after World War I to challenge the chess ideologies of traditional central European masters. This first full-scale biography of Nimzowitsch chronicles his early life in Denmark, his family and education, and his fascination with the game that would become the focus of his life. Also included are explorations of his tournament games and records, his dispute with influential chess teacher Siegbert Tarrasch, and his role in the development of Hypermodern Chess. With detailed accounts of nearly 450 games and the only narrative of Nimzowitsch from 1914 to 1924, a period formerly cloaked in mystery, this volume offers the most thorough profile available of one of chess's greatest innovators.
Download or read book Chess Explorations written by Edward Winter and published by Cadogan Books. This book was released on 1996 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chess Notes has delighted players around the world for more than a decade. Initially published as a journal but now a syndicated magazine column appearing in half a dozen languages, Edward Winter's creation provides fresh and colourful material on all aspects of chess, past and present. Often humorous, always penetrating, this selection from the journal features a miscellany of neglected brilliancies, combinations, howlers, witticisms, enigmas, hoaxes and much more. Whether extolling chess kings or exposing chess rogues, unearthing forgotten facts about Steinitz or scrutinizing the statements of Kasparov, Chess Notes sets the record straight in what Harry Golombek described as 'a most refreshing acerbity of tone'.
Download or read book Emil Kemeny written by John S. Hilbert and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-10 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emil Kemeny appeared on the American chess scene in 1890, a Hungarian chess player on the Lower East Side who had difficulty with English. Within a decade he was considered one of the country's finest chess players and writers. He dominated chess in both Philadelphia and Chicago, where he lived between 1893 and early 1906. Congenial and modest, Kemeny was appreciated for his chess play and valued for the strong friendships he formed during his years in the United States. A tenacious competitor despite poor health, he fought Showalter for the national title, ran his own chess magazine, and provided detailed coverage of Monte Carlo 1903. His chess career as player and writer is presented in detail. Common databases rarely include more than 35 of his games; this book has 227--sixty or more against Halpern, Hanham, Voigt, Showalter and Pillsbury--most with annotations; 361 diagrams. Forty additional period games, hundreds of source notes, tournament and match records, crosstables, a bibliography, and openings, player, and general indexes complete the work.
Download or read book Winning Chess Endings written by Yasser Seirawan and published by Everyman Chess. This book was released on 2003-10-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approach every endgame with a winning strategy! Good books about endgames for beginners are few and far between. WINNING CHESS ENDINGS is a great one a gripping introduction to what you need to know to win chess endings, taught by American Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. His entertaining, easy-to-understand style, incisive stories and insiders advice will help you develop a solid grasp of proven principles that you can apply with confidence whenever a game goes the distance. You'll learn to prevail time and again in endgames with common and uncommon combinations and pieces. WINNING CHESS ENDINGS teaches endgame strategies in an exciting new way: by putting you in the middle of the action with firsthand stories taken directly from famous matches. Pull up a chair and watch the world's most exciting chess endings. Then become an endgame master!
Download or read book Chess Rivals of the 19th Century written by Tony Cullen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-12-04 with total page 477 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.
