Chess Book Collections

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
MSoszynski
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by MSoszynski » Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:07 pm

On my first visit to a tourney in Poland I was asked about my chess book selection. At that time it was very small. "Eight or nine," I said. The response I got showed we had misunderstood each other. "Eight or nine metres, that's not bad".

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Mar 10, 2019 2:12 pm

Geurt Gijssen has about 10,000 chess books. He got rid of all those on the openings as he is no longer interested in that phase of the game.
When we spoke about the subject about a year ago, he did not know what to do with them when he dies.

I am getting started on writing my fifth chess book, in collaboration with Alex MFarlane and Shaun Press. It is a History of the Laws of Chess.

I have a couple of hundred chess books, not counting bulletins, programmes,magBCF/ECF YearBooks of 1981-2019. I gave away over 100 books when I moved (upsizing) 20 years ago. Roger Scowen, is/was considering downsizing and he was seeking advice as what to do with his chess collection.

i claim I have the biggest collection in the world on chess, in the English language, on video

James Pratt
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by James Pratt » Mon Mar 11, 2019 11:18 pm

I have 800. Ish. I said 'ish'
Last edited by James Pratt on Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:55 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:06 am

Well yes, there's a thread about it in the Deaths/Obituaries section.......
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

James Pratt
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by James Pratt » Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:56 am

Thanks Matt. It was late.

Tim Harding
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Tim Harding » Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:41 am

Stewart Reuben wrote:
Sun Mar 10, 2019 2:12 pm
...

I am getting started on writing my fifth chess book, in collaboration with Alex MFarlane and Shaun Press. It is a History of the Laws of Chess.

...
Stewart, please start a new thread about this in the History section. I am sure you will get lots of good advice from various people.

I do recall that you mentioned this idea to me many years ago (World Seniors 2014?) and I gave you some advice then about sources you or your co-authors need to consult. I will try to recall what they were.

You really need to go back several centuries, not just to the 19th and 20th, to do this properly.
Tim Harding
Historian and FIDE Arbiter

Author of 'Steinitz in London,' British Chess Literature to 1914', 'Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography', and 'Eminent Victorian Chess Players'
http://www.chessmail.com

Brian Towers
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Brian Towers » Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:27 pm

I have about 250 chess books, none of them rare or valuable, I suspect.

I do have the first few years of Chess Magazine complete from the first one in 1935 through to 1946. The paper quality markedly degrades during the war years when it was no doubt affected by shortages and so likely rare but being chess probably not particularly valuable. I bought them in about 1978 in a second hand bookshop in Hay on Wye for about a tenner. My Welsh girlfriend at the time, knowing that I was a bibliophile, took me there for the day. I spotted a pile of old chess magazines on a bottom shelf priced at 10p each and asked the owner how much he wanted for the job lot. I didn't know exactly what I had until I got back to my girlfriend's home and sorted through them.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

Simon Rogers
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Simon Rogers » Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:35 pm

I have dusted and counted all my chess books and it comes to 203.
I have a number of duplicates.
I don't have any valuable books.
I have a number of favourite and treasured books, which I'll talk about in a future post.

Neil Graham
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Neil Graham » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:33 pm

There is, of course, time to catch up on those missing volumes shortly :- http://www.klittich-pfankuch.de/auktio40/AK30.htm.

Simon Rogers
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Simon Rogers » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:59 pm

One of the duplicates I have is a book by the authors:
John Watson and Eric Schiller "The Big Book of Busts"

I suppose that means I have a pair of busts. :lol: :lol:

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John Upham
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by John Upham » Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:21 pm

Simon Rogers wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:59 pm
One of the duplicates I have is a book by the authors:
John Watson and Eric Schiller "The Big Book of Busts"

I suppose that means I have a pair of busts. :lol: :lol:
Here is a Guinness World Records article concerning the worlds largest bust :

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wo ... -sculpture

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Stewart Reuben
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Stewart Reuben » Sun Jun 07, 2020 8:18 pm

GEURT GIJSSEN has over 10,000 chess books.The reason he has so few is because he sold his opening treatises because he had lost interest in that facet of the collection.
Geurt (NLD IA) is quite concerned about what will become of his collection when he dies. He is 85.

When LOTHAR SCHMIDT died he had about 15,000. But that included different ediitions or imprints of the same book.

RAY KEENE did a collection of 100 of his books, bound in a uniform manner.

Simon Rogers
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Simon Rogers » Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:20 pm

Although, I really shouldn't be buying anymore books. As I have over 200 in my Chess Book Collection.
I'm thinking of adding in the next couple of days.
I'm thinking of buying the book:
Chess Behind Bars by Carl Portman
I'm also thinking of buying some more scorebooks.

Stewart Reuben
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Stewart Reuben » Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:59 am

Simon Rogers >I really shouldn't be buying anymore books. As I have over 200 in my Chess Book Collection.<

It is probably healthier than collecting pornography.

Simon Rogers
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Re: Chess Book Collections

Post by Simon Rogers » Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:20 pm

That's true. It does depend on the book however.
I'm sure there is plenty of pawnstars that play chess. :lol:

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