American Chess Masters from Morphy to Fischer by Arthur Bisguier and Andrew Soltis; Macmillan Publishing Company; 1974 Many years later Soltis said that he alone wrote all of the book. Despite agreeing to help write the book, Bisguier did nothing…
Category: Chess
Book Mention: Grandmasters of Chess by Harold Schonberg
Grandmasters of Chess by Harold Schonberg; 1st ed. Lippincott 1973; revised WW Norton & Co. 1981. Grandmasters of Chess by Harold Schonberg is a rotten book that consists of yellow jounalism based upon the writer’s ignorance and incredible stupidity. Mr.…
Chess and Other Games
by James Schroeder Once upon a time a man found a large bone, flat on two sides. He put a mark on one side and two marks on the other side and then found another man with whom he gambled.…
Book Review / Movie Review: The Luzhin Defense
Book/movie review © 2003 James Schroeder The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabakov. 1930. Translated from Russian by Michael Scammell in collaboration with the author. Copyright 1964. I have read the novel and the movie is an atrocious disgrace that has…
Movie Review: The Chess Player
Movie review © 2004 James Schroeder “The Chess Player” From the novel by Henri Bupuy-Mazuel. Produced by La Societe des Films Historiaues. 1926. France. This is a melodrama, starting in the town of Vilnius in Polish Lithuania in 1776, which…
Short Story: Beginner’s Luck
[Click HERE for floating game board.] Copyright © 2006 James Schroeder It was a beautiful spring morning about to turn into a sunny afternoon, for which Southern California was famous. Twenty years later Harry would remember it nostalgically as “the…
Book Review: Why Lasker Matters by Andrew Soltis
Why Lasker Matters by Andrew Soltis, © 2005 Batsford Other than having many great games by the best chess player of all time, this book is worthless. How can anyone look at all Lasker’s games and read everything by him…
Dear Abby: Chess player is a pawn in love–by Abigail VanBuren
 Dear Abby: You have often been asked where a single woman can meet a decent, eligible man. I have a suggestion: Join a chess club. Women are always welcome. Furthermore, they will find that men outnumber women 10–1. Not…
Book Review: My Great Predecessors Part V by Garry Kasparov
Everyman Press © 2006 This abominable series is almost worthless because there are hundreds of factual errors and the games are full of useless analysis. Ego-maniac Kasparov says: “I discovered this move which has been unknown for fifty years,” or…
Review of Kramnik – Topalov World Chess Championship Match
Vladimir Kramnik, Chess Champion of the World, accepted a challenge from Veselin Topalov, FIDE Champion, for a “12 game match”, beginning September 23. Kramnik is an honorable man but naive and gullible. He let the match be held under the…