Book review by James Schroeder The Art of Bisguier Volume Two One Hundred Selected Games 1961 – 2003 © 2008; 267 pp.; figurine algebraic The introduction by Berry is atrocious. He is incredibly egotistic and stupid and not qualified to make any comment about master play, much less grandmaster play. He is especially insulting by [...]

MATHEMATICS AND CHESS Miodrag Petkovic Dover Publications, 1997 Limp cover Reviewed by Dave Davis This is a collection of 110 problems in geometry, algebra, and combinations based on the moves of the chess pieces. The only chess knowledge required is the rules of the game. The amount of mathematical skill needed is considerable. The preface [...]

[This book review was published in the Australian magazine Chess World and is written by Cecil Purdy.] “The Art of Checkmate” by George Renaud. and Victor Kahn, former champions of France, is yet another demonstration of how very suited the French literary tradition is to chess exposition. The close attention to the order and neatness [...]

The Life and Games of Carlos Torre by Gabriel Velasco; Russell Enterprises; published 2000; 301 pp; limp cover; excellent printing and diagrams. More than 103 games in figurine algebraic notation but too many are poorly played and/or horrible exhibition games. Born November 23, 1904 in Merida, Yucatan province, Mexico, his family moved to New Orleans [...]

Counter Gambits by T.D. Harding; Dover © 1979; Price $9.00 What a delight! 220 PACKED pages. Includes 18 page chapter written 2001. Superb format: long-algebraic, bold type for game moves; short-algebraic, light type for analysis. Perfect diagrams. There are three types of gambits by Black: those which are theoretically sound, those which are risky but [...]

Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur by Max Euwe and Walter Meiden Dover price $10. Please order from me – MINIMUM ORDER $20. See Dover list with reviews HERE. Mostly a good book but Euwe made the worst possible mistake, saying 1 PK4 PQ4; 2 PxP PQB3?; 3 PxP NxP is playable, when it is actually [...]

2001 Chess Oddities by Alex Dunne © 2003 “No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any means.” THANK GOD! This is the worst collection of trash I have ever seen! There are HUNDREDS of mistakes. “Paul Morphy died of a stroke while taking a hot bath.” On July 10, 1884 in [...]

Book Review: Bobby Fischer’s Conquest of the World Chess Championship by Reuben Fine “The psychology and tactics of the title match” David McKay Co, November 1973 Review by James Schroeder published in 1974 For several years one of the best analysts in the world, Fine degenerated rapidly after he quit playing chess in 1952. In [...]

Soviet Chess 1917 – 1991 by Andrew Soltis, 2000, McFarland and Company Soltis is notorious for writing the worst researched books in history. This has so many factual errors it is worthless. It is very poorly written and abounds with inane comments such as “The tragedy of Spassky’s brief reign was that it came just [...]

New York 1936: The First Modern United States Chess Championship by John Hilbert and Peter Lahde review by James Schroeder In 1985 I discovered that the John White Dept. of the Cleveland Public Library had a box containing the original game scores of the 1936 U.S. Chess Championship Tournament. So I hand-copied all of them [...]