Rare Interesting or unusual Books.

I am currently mourning the loss of my rarest & most prized Chess book.

“How to play Chess” by Philidor published in 1795. It seems it was destroyed when our Motorhome got flooded. We lost a number of books that were glued together in a sodden mass & I can only assume it was among them as we can't find it now.

While looking for it I did find this little gem from the past. My fathers 1^st & only Chess book.

It's a 1^st edition & it also has a family connection with the Authors.

Chess Made Easy is an Australian publication by 2 of our greatest players from the 1930's 40's & 50's. C J Purdy was the 1^st World Correspondence Champion & George Koshnitzky was a multiple time Australian Champion. The book was first published in 1942 & believe it or not it is still in print today. It really is a great little book, the sort of thing you would include with a Chess set as a gift for a beginner. It is still relevant today for beginners & will get you a solid grounding & a start into reasonable level club play.

Our family connection stems originally from my Father. He played George Koshnitsy in a simultaneous match during WW2 (I think they were both in the Army at the time) & was the only player to manage a draw. Move the clock forward to 1977 & I was seriously into chess. The 1^st Chess computers had just hit the stores & I noticed in the 1977 edition a small reference to Computers on the last page. As I was having trouble finding training partners I phoned C J Purdy & asked him if he thought a Computer would work for me. We had quite a long discussion which resulted in me running out & paying out & $199.00 for the best computer on the market.

So if you have an interesting Chess book post it here, I would be very interested to know what is lurking about in peoples libraries.

You can identify 1^st editions by this ad on the back page & the fact there is no Print history on the 1^st or 2^nd page. War Time Chess sets at a pre war price!! Hmm how times have changed.

Must be great having such a rich chess history!!

They must cost a lot of money...

The only rare & interesting chess books I have are: Exploring the Chess Openings by Hugh Meyers ( MOB ) & Two CJ Purdy books on chess.

Which Purdy books do you have, I have heard good things about them but never read any apart from the one I have

Guide to good chess & search for chess perfection...both by thinkes press like new & out of print now,,,!

Though certainly not rare, my copies of "The Best of Chess Life & Review" are still interesting because they contain reprints of even older articles back to 1933 through 1988.  I think there were only 2 volumes, both edited by Pandolfini.  There are some great old photos reproduced in them.

Philidor wrote a book called “How to play Chess” in 1795?

Hey batgirl..! Nice to see ya posting again!!! Please stick around!!!!!

Yeah he did, I had hoped to open this thread with it, we are still searching for it but it doesn't look good. I bought it for $40 around 1980 more for its rarity & historcal value than to use it. Its an interesting read though. Its printed in English so I assume it was fairly popular at the time, I assume he wrote it in French originally although he did spend time in England when the French Revolution was going on

I wish you could find that book and scan or photograph the title pages.  Philidor published his famous "l'Analyse du jeu des Échecs" in 1849, less than a decade after he learned the moves of the game, based on the strength of his overwhelming victory over Phillip Stamma.  The book became quite popular very quickly for several reasons and Philidor had put out two more editions by 1790.  Those were Philidor's only publications of his only book.  However, printing was in its infancy and ideas such as copyright were also just beginning and weren't constant across countries nor so vigorously enforced.  Many copies of Philidor's book were put out in many different languages.  The first English copy I know of was in 1750, only a year after Philidor's original publication and it was entitled "Chess Analysed : Or, Instructions by which a Perfect Knowledge of this Noble Game May in a Short Time Be Acquir'd"  by A.D.Philidor.  This copy itself was reprinted several times over the years.  A book with the more literal title, "Analysis of the Game of Chess" by A. D. Philidor was published at least twice, in 1777 and 1790.  More often Philidor's book, in English, found itself in compilations that included works by authors such as Marcus Hieronymus Vida, Peter Pratt, Sir William Jones and even Benjamin Franklin, with tiltes such as "Studies in Chess," "Introduction to the History and Study of Chess," "Elements of Chess" and "An Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess."

However, I've never come across a knock-out of Philidor's "l'Analyse" with the title "How to Play Chess" and would very much like to see at least a title page(s), with the title, author, publisher and dat.

In "The Philidorian," 1838 George Walker tried to list all known chess publications up to that time and gave a valiant account.  Concerning Philidor's book, he noted it was printed in many languages including Dutch, German, French and English, but never mentioned that particular title.

Philidor spent time in England long before the French Reveloution. That's where he beat Stamma in 1747.  He crossed the Channel almost yearly, at least since 1771 and made part of his living giving blindfold exhibitions in London.  He became stranded in England during the Revolution when he was barred from returning for political reasons and died there in 1795.

@batgirl

I was puzzled by the title too, but the book did appear to be genuine, it had a plain cover with just the name Philidor on the spine. The publishing date was definately 1795, the year he died, the language was old English where the letter s was printed as f which can make for a bit of confusing read til you get used to it. It appeared that the cover had been restored at some time but all the inside appeared original & in good condition.

We are still looking for it but we are running out of places to look. The other rare books we have are all accounted for but the water damaged ones we lost were so badly damaged you could not identify every book.

If I find it I will scan the whole thing

Batgirl, you mean 1749, don't you? Typo, right? Cheers, John C.

Looks like a typo to me, she knows her subject pretty well