Book Recommendation - "Chess Opening Names" by Nathan Rose

If you're looking for a light, easy, and fun read about chess - then consider Chess Opening Names by Nathan Rose.

The book doubles as a resource for learning popular opening origins and also as a good introduction to a lot of broader chess history for historical figures (Morphy, Fischer, Philidor, etc).  But wow!  The author knows how to tell a story and keep the reader entertained!

I have put some short excerpts below, but - like all good books - doesn't alone do the writing justice:

A funny and painful jab at Winawer:

• “John Moles authored a book called The French Defense: Main Line Winawer in 1975.  In it, Moles is scathing of Winawer’s own ability to play the very opening that bears his name:  ‘Even by the standards of his time he had little understanding of the problems of the defense… and while he himself presumably played the Winawer before 1867 it is unlikely that he even deserves to be considered an innovator.’  Ouch.”
• (Page 63)

The informative origin of "Morphy's Defense" in the Ruy Lopez:

• “It appears that Morphy’s Defense was named by accident, with Morphy himself only playing it a handful of times.  One of these occasions was a Morphy-Löwenthal game recounted in William Cook’s book Synopsis of the Chess Openings.  In the fourth edition published in 1888, the book stated ‘Morphy’s defense P-QR3 [or 3. ...a6 in modern notation] still holds good.’... Cook wrote ‘Morphy’s defense’ to refer to Morphy’s singular game, but others started calling all Ruy López games which continued with 3. ...a6 ‘Morphy’s Defense’ (with a capital ‘D’).”
• (Page 51-52)

The "Dragon" Sicilian was named after the stars:

• “The story of how the Dragon Variation got its name is tied to a Russian chess-playing astronomer:  Fyodor Duz-Khotimirsky.  He wrote: ‘I first uttered this name in Kiev, in 1901…  While looking at the sky I noticed how the dragon constellation resembled the [Black] pawn structure ...d6 ...e7 ...f7 ...g6 ...h7 seen in the Sicilian Defense.  So, I decided to call the opening the Dragon Variation.’
• This configuration of the stars does indeed bear a resemblance to Black’s pawn setup.  But, dear reader, to say that the stars (or the pawns) look anything like a dragon is a stretch.  But then, the same can be said about most star constellations.  It takes a heck of an imagination to argue the tiny dots of light in the sky look like lions, bulls, fish - or dragons.”
• (Page 198-199)