Murray the Great

Above is the cover of the paperback edition of the original 1913 publication. I chose this cover because it's the same one that's sitting in my nightstand drawer.  To call this a book would be an injustice. H.J.R. Murray's 900 page "A History of Chess" is a tome. 

Harold James Ruthven Murray was born in 1868. He didn't begin to learn chess until after he earned his degree in mathematics from Balliol College in 1890. From 1891 to 1900 he was involved actively in education as a teacher, then a headmaster. After that he took ancillary positions as an Inspector of Secondary Schools in several districts.  His various jobs put him in contact with the better chess players of the area. He even helped start a chess club in 1896. Around that same time his interest in the origins of chess was blooming. His research came to the attention of 80 year old Baron v.d. Lasa which in turn led him to get in touch with the chess bibliophile, John Griswold White of Cleveland (whose chess collection at the Cleveland Public Library ranks among the largest in the world).  White, a more-than-willing participant, became the source Murray needed.  Murray then taught himself Arabic to be able to better decipher the ancient texts.

Between 1900 and when "A History of Chess" was published in 1913, Murray contributed numerous well researched and well written articles to the "British Chess Magazine." But it's his seminal book on the history of the game for which he's best remembered.

At 900 pages of very tiny print and 157 illustrations, this is absolutely not a book for the casual reader.  Even the table of contents, at 5 pages, is too long to reproduce here.  

The book is divided into two main sections: Chess in Asia and Chess in Europe. The first part covers chaturanga/chaturaji , shatranj (Persian, Arabic), chess in China, Japan, Korea and Malasia, chess variants based on chaturanga. 
The second part deals with medieval chess and modern chess up to Philidor (with a token12 page post-Philidor chapter called "The Nineteenth Century").

The book is full of illustrations and chess positions. Photographic reproductions are very few, and most if the images are drawings. Were this book updated today, I imagine the images would be a lot better. In that respect the book shows its age. 

As someone with little interest in pre-chess or proto-chess games, I find the first half of the book only mildly interesting and only occasionally useful for my purposes.  The second half (for me) is a wealth of information.  Shatranj's twin, Medieval Chess, is covered deeply and in great, if somewhat tedious, detail. My main complaint is that Murray sometimes gives long (and short) passages in various languages, such as Latin, Italian, French and Spanish without offering an English translation.  Since he obviously knew the translation, this seems like a serious shortfall. 

His treatment of modern chess from Lucena to Greco is exquisite.  As Carly Simon sang, "no one does it better."  Personally, I find this section worth the price of the book.  I suspect everyone who is involved in the history of chess has their own areas of interest, so I don't want it to seem as if this section is better than others, only that it's my personal favorite.

This posting needs some pictures!
Here's just a few from Chapter X  on "Chessboards and Chessmen" to give a hint at what to expect:

In summary, this isn't a book for the lazy, the casual reader or those used to having things delivered in convenient little packages. This book is heavy in weight, size and substance, chock full of extraneous information (for most of us), footnotes and small print.  It requires effort and, yes, work.  It will separate those with a passing inclination for the history of chess from those with a genuine thirst that needs quenching. It's a superb book but only for a limited audience.

My previous evaluations of chess history books:

History and Old Lace

"Chess: A History" —a Short Critique
The History of a Game
295 Pictures

An Averbakh Bookh

I want know history of billiard and snooker

Murray seems hasn't mouth ( big mustache )

billiardandsnooker.com 

Another good post. I skim the early portions, too. Usually.

Carly Simon was right for many years, but for the past seven, it has been done better. Vastly better.

I've been slowly wading through for more than a year:

Monumental Scholarship

Notes Towards a Book Review

Peter J. Monté, The Classical Era of Modern Chess (McFarland 2014) is a work of monumental scholarship. It does not replace H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (Oxford 1913) because it is of more limited chronological scope. Rather, it summarizes in a few pages (1-24) a good portion of Murray's text and what scholarship has contributed in the century since Murray. Monté then expands Murray's 26 page chapter XII "From Lopez to Greco" to a full length work of over 400 pages. The second and third parts of The Classical Era of Modern Chess add more than one hundred pages of detailed documentation of the sources of games and problems from this era.

My first impression of the book was that it is impressive scholarship which will serve as a frequently consulted reference work sitting beside Murray; Hooper and Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess, 2nd ed.; and a few other texts on a shelf next to the desk in my office. Also, I might read it. Although documented at least as well as Murray (probably better), and often concerned with the minutia of manuscript details, it remains quite readable.

http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2020/06/monumental-scholarship.html

I could finish Part 1 this week. Part 2 is an index of moves. I'll be sifting through that the rest of my life.

PVP BATGIRL

O YOU HAVE  AFRAID

Thanks (I hope).  I remember when Monté's book came out. It's cost always kept me at bay.  I read your review on Amazon along with those of others and lost my powers of resistance. I guess I'll soon find out what I've been missing. BTW, Peter Monté died a few years ago so this is his legacy. 

Yes, I think he died shortly after the book came out. Monté's book is difficult reading because he is focused on the minutiae of manuscripts and uses technical language understood by other scholars. There are places where I pass over details quickly, marking them in my mind as reference material I may come back to later. The scholarship is impressive.
 I find that as I am working on some moves in part II, I keep returning to the section where he discusses the manuscript in question. Because of Monté's labors, I can now confidently assert that Greco's contribution to the so-called Greco Attack begins with 13.Ne5.

ممنون

Never heard of him 

Seems he’s old news. Was at the top five years ago.

https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview

My latest employment of The Classical Era of Modern Chess.

http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2021/11/textbook-coordination.html