Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
- John Upham
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
- Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
- Contact:
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Who, in this place, has read (and has an opinion on)
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess
-
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Not me. I only have the Chess Mind.
- Matt Mackenzie
- Posts: 5191
- Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:51 pm
- Location: Millom, Cumbria
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Read it years (nay decades) ago, got it from the local library. It was readable enough like nearly all his stuff was.
I have his two guides to the game (Teach Yourself/Pan Book) fair to say they don't make them like that these days.
I have his two guides to the game (Teach Yourself/Pan Book) fair to say they don't make them like that these days.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)
-
- Posts: 550
- Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:51 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Found 'Not Only Chess' on my bookshelf and so opened it probably for the first time in several decades. Abrahams has the lawyer's precise command of the English language, though his views on women's chess (pre-Polgars of course) would be highly controversial today. His anecdotes about leading Russian players of the day are fascinating.
Others have mentioned that he had a high opinion of himself, evident from what he writes on the inside cover:
'In the early 1920s I was Bobby Fischer - plus an enormous intellectual endowment in more than chess. It was too good. A gnome in the disguise of a chess victim warned me, 'Don't be only a chess player.' (cf: Broadbent's advice to the young Jonathan Penrose) The watershed was January 1925. In one month I won a scholarship to Oxford and invented the Abrahams Defence.
'Thereafter the dissipation of spiritual energy into polyglottery, poetry, law and the pursuit of a philosophy First, permitted my chess decline right down to master strength.'
Certainly no run-of-the-mill chess book. Perhaps Jonathan Rowson would be someone capable of something similar nowadays, written, I'm sure, with a modicum of modesty.
Others have mentioned that he had a high opinion of himself, evident from what he writes on the inside cover:
'In the early 1920s I was Bobby Fischer - plus an enormous intellectual endowment in more than chess. It was too good. A gnome in the disguise of a chess victim warned me, 'Don't be only a chess player.' (cf: Broadbent's advice to the young Jonathan Penrose) The watershed was January 1925. In one month I won a scholarship to Oxford and invented the Abrahams Defence.
'Thereafter the dissipation of spiritual energy into polyglottery, poetry, law and the pursuit of a philosophy First, permitted my chess decline right down to master strength.'
Certainly no run-of-the-mill chess book. Perhaps Jonathan Rowson would be someone capable of something similar nowadays, written, I'm sure, with a modicum of modesty.
-
- Posts: 5803
- Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:28 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
It sounds as if Abrahams would be a natural for this forum.
- JustinHorton
- Posts: 10364
- Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:06 am
- Location: Somewhere you're not
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Abrahams had a rather greater ability to stick to his point.Paul Habershon wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:34 pmPerhaps Jonathan Rowson would be someone capable of something similar nowadays, written, I'm sure, with a modicum of modesty.
I've got Not Only Chess, though I've not opened it for a while: my recollection is that it's interesting, but not so much as The Chess Mind.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."
lostontime.blogspot.com
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."
lostontime.blogspot.com
-
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Truth is, Gerald was never Bobby Fischer. He was good - but not that good.
His reference to Bobby may have been a bit of hyperbolic comedy. Or maybe not?
His reference to Bobby may have been a bit of hyperbolic comedy. Or maybe not?
-
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
I tried to find my copy of Chess Mind. I failed. Must try harder.
This got me thinking. I know I have it, but have I read it?
In the 1970s - my period of peak enthusiasm - I bought any chess book I could afford, including the one by Gerald. I also had a liking for Batsford hardbacks, one of which was Suetin's 'Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame'.
To this day, I remember IM Horner describing the latter as a book you 'buy but don't read'. He was right, in my case at least.
Might the Chess Mind come in the same category? And has anyone read the Suetin?
Caveat emptor. Buying is not the same as reading!
This got me thinking. I know I have it, but have I read it?
In the 1970s - my period of peak enthusiasm - I bought any chess book I could afford, including the one by Gerald. I also had a liking for Batsford hardbacks, one of which was Suetin's 'Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame'.
To this day, I remember IM Horner describing the latter as a book you 'buy but don't read'. He was right, in my case at least.
Might the Chess Mind come in the same category? And has anyone read the Suetin?
Caveat emptor. Buying is not the same as reading!
- John Upham
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
- Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
- Contact:
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
In a similar vein, reading is not the same as buying when it comes to borrowing.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess
-
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Mike Conroy relates a telling anecdote from his early days as Lancashire captain.
Gerald's stipulation for turning out was top board, and a taxi to matches.
He never played for Lancs under Mike's captaincy, meaning that I never played in the same team as him.
Gerald's stipulation for turning out was top board, and a taxi to matches.
He never played for Lancs under Mike's captaincy, meaning that I never played in the same team as him.
-
- Posts: 550
- Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:51 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
I think most of the unread books contain reams of notation and analysis, particularly openings books which at the time of purchase we think will guarantee us crushing victories. The average player needs to get out board and pieces to work through them - and there is the annoying bit: work! Thus books such as Chess Mind are more enjoyable to browse.Nick Ivell wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:46 amI also had a liking for Batsford hardbacks, one of which was Suetin's 'Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame'.
To this day, I remember IM Horner describing the latter as a book you 'buy but don't read'. He was right, in my case at least.
Might the Chess Mind come in the same category? And has anyone read the Suetin?
I haven't got the Suetin book, but I am reminded of my first term as a teacher in a school to which I had applied partly because it already had a strong chess club. Classrooms had the old-fashioned wooden desks into which pupils, risking the teacher's wrath, could carve graffiti. I noticed that someone had gouged SUE, presumably the name of a girlfriend, to which was added, clearly by someone else, TIN. Aha! I had come to the right place.
- JustinHorton
- Posts: 10364
- Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:06 am
- Location: Somewhere you're not
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
Well I tried to. I recall buying it at the bookstall at the Hitchin Open and having no idea what the point of it was, a state of bafflement that has not been relieved by subsequent attempts.Nick Ivell wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:46 amIn the 1970s - my period of peak enthusiasm - I bought any chess book I could afford, including the one by Gerald. I also had a liking for Batsford hardbacks, one of which was Suetin's 'Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame'.
To this day, I remember IM Horner describing the latter as a book you 'buy but don't read'. He was right, in my case at least.
Absolutely not, it's a breeze.
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."
lostontime.blogspot.com
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."
lostontime.blogspot.com
-
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
I was thinking that openings books might lead to concrete success, and so might get read.
General books on the middlegame, or on psychology, might not get read.
Perhaps I will get round to the Suetin one day.
General books on the middlegame, or on psychology, might not get read.
Perhaps I will get round to the Suetin one day.
- Matt Mackenzie
- Posts: 5191
- Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:51 pm
- Location: Millom, Cumbria
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
On the subject of middle game books, has anybody read Znosko-Borovsky's effort?
(I admit to asking this mainly because Golombek memorably described it as "infantile and puerile" in his Encyclopaedia)
(I admit to asking this mainly because Golombek memorably described it as "infantile and puerile" in his Encyclopaedia)
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)
-
- Posts: 5249
- Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:56 pm
- Location: Croydon
- Contact:
Re: Remembering Gerald Abrahams (15-iv-1907 15-iii-1980)
I have read Znosko-Borovsky's book, albeit decades ago.Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:21 pmOn the subject of middle game books, has anybody read Znosko-Borovsky's effort?
(I admit to asking this mainly because Golombek memorably described it as "infantile and puerile" in his Encyclopaedia)
I rated it more highly than Golombek did, but still not particularly highly.