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Young Authors
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:41 pm
by MJMcCready
Hi, I just learnt that GM Daniel Naroditstky wrote Mastering Positional Chess when he was only 14. Is that a record in terms of a titled player producing literature at the youngest age? Have we had someone publish anything when they were younger than that?
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:29 pm
by Richard Thursby
See
https://www.indiatvnews.com/amp/sports/ ... -30-773261 and
https://indiabookofrecords.in/youngest- ... -on-chess/ regarding
https://notionpress.com/read/move-n-mate
13 year old (just, still) published Move n Mate, 500 checkmate in one combinations. Not sure how obtainable it is for most forumites.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 8:20 am
by MJMcCready
That is young indeed to be delivering publications.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:18 am
by Geoff Chandler
The Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World: The Chess Adventures of Abhimanyu Mishra Aged 12 years, 4 months.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/youngest-grand ... B0BHJKXPB7
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:49 am
by John Upham
To put the above into context let us not forget that Ray Keene during the gap between Dulwich College and Cambridge Ray (aged 18) wrote his first (and one of his best) book : Flank Openings :
- Flank Openings, Raymond Keene, British Chess Magazine, 1967.
- 5098501._SY475_.jpg (30.41 KiB) Viewed 2720 times
I would argue that in 1966 this would have been far more of an achievement that the examples cited above despite Ray being older.
(We cannot be sure of the extent of ghost writing for the previously cited examples).
These days use of ChessBase makes authoring chess books many times easier than it would have been using a Rolodex or some kind of card index system (which is what I used in the 1970s and 1980s).
You probably didn't expect me to extoll the virtues of Ray but I will always give credit where credit is due.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 11:51 am
by MJMcCready
Are we sure he actually wrote it?
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 5:05 pm
by Geoff Chandler
Hi MJM,
It has his name on the author and the advert give a passage; " I had won the game. I went out and saw Bapu waiting for me. I rushed to him and gave him a big hug. I had become the youngest Grandmaster in the entire world. I had beaten a nineteen-year-old world record. "
I remember Fred Reinfeld had a book out on child prodigies, Morphy, Capablanca, Reshevsky and Fischer. These days it would run into three volumes and have the catchy title 'Masters Before Puberty.'
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 6:42 pm
by MJMcCready
I'm not sure that would be the best selling point in today's world!
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2024 6:43 pm
by MJMcCready
John Upham wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:49 am
To put the above into context let us not forget that Ray Keene during the gap between Dulwich College and Cambridge Ray (aged 18) wrote his first (and one of his best) book : Flank Openings :
Would that make Keene the first teenager to write a book on chess?
5098501._SY475_.jpg
I would argue that in 1966 this would have been far more of an achievement that the examples cited above despite Ray being older.
(We cannot be sure of the extent of ghost writing for the previously cited examples).
These days use of ChessBase makes authoring chess books many times easier than it would have been using a Rolodex or some kind of card index system (which is what I used in the 1970s and 1980s).
You probably didn't expect me to extoll the virtues of Ray but I will always give credit where credit is due.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 5:57 pm
by John Townsend
There is a section about the youngest chess writers and authors in Edward Winter's article
Chess Records:
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/records.html
These include, for instance, not only Naroditsky - in a C.N. item 14 or 15 years ago ... - but also Murray Chandler.
There are also references to the youngest person to be the subject of a chess book.
(Note that this article is no longer updated, so it takes no account of any publications since the cut-off date of 21 November 2020).
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:31 pm
by John Upham
John Townsend wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 5:57 pm
.. - but also Murray Chandler.
Murray wrote:
- A White Pawn in Europe, Murray Chandler, 1975
- white pawn in europe001_small.jpg (1.06 MiB) Viewed 2452 times
when fifteen years old.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:47 pm
by MJMcCready
Good find. Unaware of that.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 1:02 pm
by Christopher Kreuzer
You would have thought the interlinking of databases and the way in which searches can be done now, that it might be trivial to extract a list of teenaged authors of chess books.
Be aware that some will have been written while a teenager and published aged 20 (could also define the limit as under 18).
Lovely cover artwork for the Chandler book. Who is the artist there? Technically an extended tournament report might be seen as not in the same league as a theoretical opening tome.
You could also look for writings by young chess players at article level, which would expand the scope somewhat.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:32 pm
by John Upham
Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 1:02 pm
You could also look for writings by young chess players at article level, which would expand the scope somewhat.
James and myself invited Theo Slade to write for
BCM when were both working for
BCM.
Theo was twelve when he wrote his first
BCM article. Now a resident of Orlando, Florida and doing very well for himself.
Re: Young Authors
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 4:30 pm
by Jon D'Souza-Eva
I'm in India at the moment and could probably get hold of this book via Amazon if anyone is desperate to have a copy.