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Most you've spent on a chess book?

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HoldemRulzOK

I've got a large collection of chess books and magazines and am always looking at expanding it further, I've devoted a whole room of my house just for my chess collection. As I generally look around the net to get the best price for a book I'm interested in buying I must admit that I spent around 200 bucks once for a rare out of print book. I was in the market to get a good quality book on the 1995 World Championship Match between Kasparov and Anand and according to book reviews on the match the best one was by Patrick Wolffe. I tried several chess shops but each one didn't have it in stock and told me it was out of print and quite rare now. So my next best option was Amazon and fortunately I was able to locate a copy in very good condition but as expected at a high price. I decided to snap it up and was not disappointed at the quality of the match coverage. This was expected as Patrick was one of Anands' seconds during this match. So can anyone top $200 for a book purchase? or what was the most you've spent or willing to spend on a book?

Little-Ninja

About $60 i think was the most on an individual book.

GmatCat

nothing

gumpty
i just bought a book last thursday (Alekhines Chess Games 1902-1946) for £65 i believe thats about $110 ...thats the most i have ever spent and probably the most i will ever spend.
HoldemRulzOK
gumpty wrote:
i just bought a book last thursday (Alekhines Chess Games 1902-1946) for £65 i believe thats about $110 ...thats the most i have ever spent and probably the most i will ever spend.

 Your recent post about the above mentioned Alekhine book is what prompted me to ask the question on the most anyone has paid for a chess book? I guess on Amazon you can get most books even latest releases for a fraction of the usual retail cost but you can save real money if you're prepared to buy second hand.

gumpty
streetfighter wrote:

Hmmm, that's a lot of money guys! The most I have spent is a whopping £20 ($28) for one of Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' books.

I do have a couple of chess books which are worth maybe $200 now, but I doubt if I'd ever sell them.

By the way Gumpty, £60 is only about $85 now!


I stand corrected sir :-) so about $90 then
Odie_Spud

$12.95. I haven’t bought any books for 20 years. Don’t need them because I don’t study anymore; just play.

snits

About $60 for a hardcover edition of Averbakh's Chess Tactics for Advanced Players. The Edition Olms versions of Dvoretsky's works aren't cheap though. They run about $40 each. They would probably be the most expensive in-print chess books I have purchased.

Nytik

£15. ($20-25 now, though it used to be $30). Why spend so much on chess books? If you look hard enough, all of them should be below £20.

EDIT: I accept that the special few are very expensive.

MapleDanish
I bought a first edition My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer not too long ago, I believe it only ended up costing me a little over $100 but they usually go for about 300.

Edit - pardon the italics lol.. can't takem off?
likesforests

I don't suppose I've paid more than thirty bucks. I usually wait for 30%-40% off coupons or buy my books via Amazon to save money. I make up for that in volume!  Tongue out

IPA-Ray

$25 or so for Fundamental Chess Endings which I have slowly been looking at.

lastwarrior2010

A great place to get cheap chess books is "half-price books"

although they have limited supplies, you can sometimes fine good opening books there.

ZeroVektor

~$90 for a copy of Tal's Winning Chess Combinations (HB in great condition) only to find a FREE digital copy a few weeks later!!!!! This is a great book.

I did splurge recently and win an ebay auction for "A Killer Chess Opening Repertoire" by Summerscale -- all-in, <$30 from the UK -- whoooo!

Mot of the books I get are 30+% off of the retail and I'm not scared of the local used book store -- I've got close to 100 paper copies and in excess of 300 digital copies.

One side note -- the excellent Averbakh book (Chess Tactics for Advanced Players) can now be had for <$30 in a larger (than the original) printed style.

snits

Yeah, I saw that Ed Labate had created a new edition of Averbakh's book.

uritbon

1 hour :) I got all of my chess books for free from my teacher, he's awesome...

ZeroVektor
snits wrote:

Yeah, I saw that Ed Labate had created a new edition of Averbakh's book.


 I got a copy...it's difficult and really great.  One of the greats fo sho.

e4forme

$125.00 for Steinitz' 1895 "Modern Chess Instructor" Original Edition.

Morphy's Immortal game embossed in Gold on the Cover!

spoiler1
HoldemRulzOK wrote:

I've got a large collection of chess books and magazines and am always looking at expanding it further, I've devoted a whole room of my house just for my chess collection. As I generally look around the net to get the best price for a book I'm interested in buying I must admit that I spent around 200 bucks once for a rare out of print book. I was in the market to get a good quality book on the 1995 World Championship Match between Kasparov and Anand and according to book reviews on the match the best one was by Patrick Wolffe. I tried several chess shops but each one didn't have it in stock and told me it was out of print and quite rare now. So my next best option was Amazon and fortunately I was able to locate a copy in very good condition but as expected at a high price. I decided to snap it up and was not disappointed at the quality of the match coverage. This was expected as Patrick was one of Anands' seconds during this match. So can anyone top $200 for a book purchase? or what was the most you've spent or willing to spend on a book?


 My friend, it can be very tricky with books, and most other learning material.  It may be a great book with 5 star reviews, but the student may not be at the right time to study it due to the content being inappropriate.

I believe that to become a real good player, it's not enough to study a lot ( next to playing and resting) but one must be careful about the material too.  In other words  beginners (including  myself) make a mistake to try to understand advanced  concepts, or intermediate concepts on many aspects of chess, when that time could have been used on basic stuff first.

Take a good look at your skill, an unbiased look, understand your level of play and then go out and get a book, or magazine or something, and try to finish it. 

aansel

$2,000--2nd edition Ruy Lopez. I spent about $1,000 for a 1st English Philidor.