A Book of Chess [1st ed.] 0060100486, 978-0060100483

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A Book of Chess

C.H.O’D. Alexander

Bobby Fischer’s dramatic World Championship win over Boris Spassky was headline news throughout the world. It has transformed the world of chess, opening up new horizons for players at every level. A Book of Chess is the first complete, illustrated survey of all aspects of the game since chess became news. A Booh of Chess is a considered view, by the distinguished chess correspondent of the Sunday Times and the Financial Times, of the essence of chess, the source of its fascination throughout fifteen hundred years of history. It combines an immensely readable survey of professional play in the Soviet Union and the West (Just how does a Grandmaster make it to the top? How does he live? How does he stay there?) with a discussion of the philosophy of the game, and what it has to tell us about the workings of the brain and the nature of thought. He considers the problems facing computer programmers and the chance that one day a computer program will be able to beat any human player. Also covered are the ‘mechanics’ of chess (Board, rules, clocks, pieces, etc.), the amateur game in all its aspects, and the highways and byways of chess - problems and studies, alternative forms, and related games such as three-dimensional chess, Shogi (Japanese chess) and Go. A further section, the iconography of chess, covers the role of chess in art, literature and within our present-day consumer culture. It includes stories and extracts from novels about chess. Scattered through the book are about thirty fully annotated games. C.H.O’D.Alexander, in a long and distinguished career, has discussed and analysed the game with its leading exponents in the East and the West, and he has enlivened his text with stories and anecdotes about famous players. For the book, he arranged a detailed and controversial interview with one of the world’s best players, the Danish Grandmaster, Bent Larsen. A Book of Chess has been edited and designed by Derek Birdsall, who collaborated with C.H.O’D.Alexander on the Penguin Fischer v. Spassky. It is illustrated throughout with a unique collection of photographs, diagrams, drawings and engravings.

$10.00

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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/bookofchess0000alex

State of Vermont Department of Libraries Northeast Regional Library P. 0. Box 188 St. Johnsbury, Vt. 05819

A Book of Chess

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