How many chess books are there?

 Are those all non-repeat book CHESS titles only or are some short publications like magizines, articles and take out books on checker & draughts ...geez.

They are non-repeat chess titles (and a much smaller number of draughts titles), started from private collections from the end of the 19th / early 20th century and increased since then. You can't take them out, but if you make an appointment you can go there and read them.

Maybe the answer is here (I haven't had time to read it yet)

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz132.pdf

No, it doesn't seem to be.

Maybe the question is one of definition, what is a book?

Does a 100 page monthly magazine constitute a book? Does a collection of tournament games, with maybe only a dozen or so copies?

How long is a piece of string?

A publication with an ISBN?

There were hundreds of manuscripts (or whatever you want to call them) before ISBN. Books predate ISBN. Just my opinion.

You're right of course. I was talking in the present sense/tense.

David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld write that, "Since then there has been a steady increase year by year of the number of new chess publications. No one knows how many have been printed..."

But in Cleveland Public Library there are 32,000 chess books and over 6,000 bound volumes of chess periodicals.

But Lotar Schmid claims to have over 50000 chess books.

 Remember we are talking single chess book titles. We are not going to count every edition of the same book , paper backs and then count the hard cover too or periodicals. Keep in mind most Public libraries (and chess book collectors) have multiple copies of the same book. I have (I think, I am not at home to count them) 6 copies of My 60 Memorable Games. I would be interested in seeing where Mr Schmid mentioned his 50,000 chess books and I would love to see the list ( ALL DIFFERENT) of his chess books.

Huh?  Isn't David Levy Scottish?

 "30,000 biographical chess books! He says there are 45,000..."

So ofcourse you neglected to say 30,000 DIFFERENT titles. So if these are 30,000 "biographical chess books", then it stands to reason these are 30,000 different chess authors. I mean, how many authors would write more than one biography about themselves? Well heck! I wanna see that list.

Google Books lists 208,000 books and magazines when you search for "intitle:chess."  Searches for "intitle:checkers" turn up 6130 books.  "intitle:将棋" (i.e. shogi in Japanese) nets 2690 hits.  "intitle:囲碁" (i.e. Go) lists 2040.  Chess seems to be doing pretty well.

 BOOKS is the topic...not magazines. There are a ZILLION chess mags, articles etc. So the 208,000 is mostly mags and articles, NOT BOOKS. eg This is one of the Google listings, it had an article about black chess players... I am sure this Ebony will not count as a "Chess Book" :

The Cleveland Public LIbrary has the largest public collection of chess books in the world and has something like 30,000 books plus many thousand more periodicles.

 OK guilty. I missed that ...autobiograpy. But I would still want to see the list of 30,000 biographical chess books. I doubt it will ever be linked here. Remember DIFFERENT titles.

I shot this question over to the Los Angeles public library. Now i have no clue who will do the leg work, a research librarian or a volunteer high school student:

I am having somewhat of a debate with online friends on chess.com regarding the number of chess books ever written. ie single title only, not how many ever printed, but how many were ever written. Not articles, periodical or magazines. In other words "My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer would count as ONE. Do not count various editions,printings or hard cover vs soft cover-is still basically the same book counting as one. Chess books without the word "Chess" would still count as a chess book if the main topic is chess. Thanks.

 PS- I forgot to tell them not to count video's or CD's, and not to count the same book in different languages more than once.

You have to review any "list of chess books", the Los Angeles Public Library lists the following as a chess book. It is not even a book ...

DESCRIPTION

COPIES

REVIEWS  

MORE INFO

MARC RECORD

PLACE A HOLD

ADD TAG

Call #:

• CD

Author(s):

• Neville, Katherine, 1945-

Title(s):

• The fire [sound recording] / Katherine Neville.

Uniform Title:

Other Title(s):

Edition:

Publisher:

• New York : Random House Audio, p2008.

Description:

• 5 sound discs (6.5 hrs.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Electronic Access:

Current frequency:

Former frequency:

Publication History:

Series:

Notes:

• Abridged.
• Compact discs.
• Sequel to: Eight, 1989.

Contents:

Indexed in:

Participant(s):

• Read by Susan Denaker.

Summary:

• 2003, Colorado: Alexandra Solarin is summoned home to her family's ancestral Rocky Mountain hideaway for her mother's birthday. Thirty years ago, her parents, Cat Velis and Alexander Solarin, believed that they had scattered the pieces of the Montglane Service around the world. When Alexandra arrives her mother is missing and a mysterious group of houseguests have arrived, along with her aunt and the most powerful piece of Charlemagne's service.

Issuer:

Indexes:

Subject(s):

• Quests (Expeditions) -- Fiction
• Chess sets -- Fiction
• Puzzles -- Fiction
• Family secrets -- Fiction

I don't see how Ebony could be included amongst the magazines with the word "chess" in its title. 

 The Google list and various library lists of "books" are somewhat suspect. Yes my point is these lists are not just books but various magazines,articles, CD's, video's etc that mention the word "chess". In the case of the Ebony magazine there is an article about Black chess players-not the title. So there is no way the Google chess "book" list or lists from various libraries are representative of ONLY chess books. Not only do they include non-chess books but probably count the same book more than once if it has more than one edition, hardcovers, soft covers and duplicates etc.