295 Pictures

I don't live in New York.  In fact I've never even been to the Big Apple but ever since I became involved in chess I've heard of Fred Wilson's Books.  Today he's located at Union Square Park on the perimeter of Greenwich Village.  Mr. Wilson is a chess player - he earned a master title (NM) in 2017 at the improbable age of 71 - who sells chess books, authors chess books and teaches chess, a sort of Renaissance Chess Man. 

photo from Perpetual Chess Podcast
you can hear an interview with NM Wilson by clicking the photo

That was the appetizer.  Now for the meat and potatoes:

The title of the book says it all.  At 182 pages with 295 illustrations, the text is just a side dish. It's all about the pictures.

Now, since I've been looking at books on chess history (see the links below this paragraph), the question is, does a coffee-table type book full of illustrations and photos rate being called a chess history book?

History and Old Lace

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

I imagine it all depends on how we want to look at things.  To some people history is a collection of facts to be proven or disproven.  To others it's just a look into earlier times.  To me history is, as the word suggests, a story --actually a confluence of billions and billions of stories whether handed down orally or written in manuscripts and books or deduced indirectly.  

History, at it's very best, is highly imperfect.  But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it or appreciate it, even it's imperfections.  At the core, when we try to learn history, we are seeking some understanding, maybe even more so than truth.  So understanding, appreciation and enjoyment seem to be the motivations behind books on chess history.  I'm not sure that a picture book adds much to understanding, but it certainly fits my other two criteria. 

Most, though not all, books on chess history use images to enhance the text.  Fred Wilson's book uses text to enhance the images.  This 1981 book follows a general path from older (medieval) to newer (Karpov), with pictures of players, books, magazines, newspaper illustrations, ads, scoresheets and whatever else seemed to fit each era as it flows through it. 

I first got my greedy hands on this book shortly after the year 2000 when the internet was still a chess wasteland.  It was the first time I saw photos of the 19th century American players Max Judd and Albert Hodges:

Max Judd (L)   and   Albert Hodges (R)

While I've seen probably 80% of the images before (thanks to the internet and other books), there are some not so flippantly passed around. And the images in the book are relatively high quality. 

Just to whet the appetite, here are three such images (you'll have to buy the book for more).

Bern 1932
L-R foreground: Euwe, Sultan Khan, Bernstein, Bogoljubow, Alekhine, Flohr

Should you buy this book to learn the history of chess?  No.

Should you buy this book to better appreciate the history of chess and to have hours of enjoyment savoring each page?  Definitely.

Sometimes the dessert is even better than the main course.

I will try to get this book. Cheers!

Very nice! Just put it on my x-mas list.

i almost thought that there will be 295 pictures in this forum...

No nudes?... Yeah, chess.com is gonna close my account now... damn it. 

It is a wonderful book. The first time I saw pictures of many players, like you say. Probably where my love of chess pictures comes from 

Perhaps your most revealing post 'greedy-hands' Batgirl (very funny). You are a marvel and my favorite historian (not just chess historian) by a wide mile. You graciously revel your beautiful sense of what it means to be historian for you and if were a historian that would be my model! You share your delicious finds. Thanks so much for everything you do. I hope someday you get out a bit more and see those marvelous places, like NYC, that you already know so much about. I would love this book.

Thank you.

But I should mention that I'm not a historian.  I just write on historical topics. 

Images certainly do have their place. 

Just the centerfold of Efim Bogoljubow. 

I've been in Fred Wilson's bookstore.

It was small and there was a cat but his book selection was incredible.

There are probably coffee-table books out there full of beautiful or exotic chess sets, but this is one for players -- yes, chess players can have their own coffee-table book!  I probably got it thirty years ago; way before I got my coffee-table books about the Rolling Stones and Bob Marley.  They don't rate as history books either; sometimes it's nice to just have some light reading.