Chess Non-fiction Worth Reading
Discover the best chess non-fiction books worth reading! Explore top-rated titles that delve into strategy, history, and legendary players to elevate your game and knowledge.
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The Chess Artist
by J. C. Hallman
Exploring the obsessive hold chess exerts over its followers, Hallman examines the history and evolution of the game and the people who dedicate their lives to it.
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The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1996
by Andy Soltis
This thoroughly updated and revised edition of the highly acclaimed 1986 work ("detailed analysis"--Choice; "handsome...clearly written and beautifully produced"--Chess Notes; "chess history brought alive...entertaining and fascinating"--Chess Life) provides a definitive history of all championship events in the United States through 1995. Both the games and the occasions are covered in depth, including biographical details, descriptive settings, anecdotes, tournament drama, unusual games, and grandmaster analysis. Filled with quotations from the winners, losers and many others, this is an authoritative and indispensable volume.
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Chess Lists, 2d ed.
by Andy Soltis
The best, the worst, the shortest, the oddest, the longest, the most deceitful, the most memorable, the most brilliant, the dumbest--of players, games, matches, tournaments, books, ideas, etc. The lists are replete with background detail and exact facts--this second edition of Soltis's classic 1984 book is altogether an essential part of any chess collection and a browser's delight. The new edition contains 25 percent more lists, games, diagrams and annotations. The majority of lists from the first edition have been updated or expanded--or both.
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The 'World Chess Championship 1948
by Harry Golombek
Inspiration and controversy alike still surround the 1948 match tournament. Why for example was the Polish grandmaster Miguel Najdorf not invited when US Grandmaster Reuben Fine dropped out?
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The Book of the First American Chess Congress
by Daniel W. Fiske
First published in 1859, this classic volume contains the proceedings of that celebrated assemblage, the First American Chess Congress, held in New York in 1857. It includes the presented papers, the grand tournament games, and sketches of the history of chess in the old new worlds.
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The Turk
by Tom Standage
Part historical detective story, part biography, "The Turk" relates the saga of an unusual 18th-century robot--fashioned from wood to look like a man who was dressed like a Turk and played chess. 25 illustrations.
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Master Pieces
by Gareth Williams
A beautiful tribute to the artistry of the game of chess, this gorgeous gift book is devoted to the art and design of the individual pieces in a chess set. The focus is on magnificent pieces from around the world, both ancient and modern. Full color.
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The Art of Chess
by Colleen Schafroth
Schafroth explores the historical development of the game of chess, and chess pieces as both art forms and reflections of the cultures which produced them. The author includes worldwide collections of chess pieces, with particular focus on the diverse collection of some 300 sets at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington. The text is academic, but accessible to the general reader interested in chess, history, and art and culture. Lavishly illustrated with color photographs. The author's credentials are not stated. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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The Game Continues
by Lawrence L. Langer
""The paintings of The Game Continues provide stimulating commentary on the richness and the limits of metaphor in art. Samuel Bak's provocative chess-inspired landscapes illuminate the waste of war in a profaned world, and its impact on the human spirit. Peopled by pawns and knights, rooks and bishops, kings and queens, Bak's vision of conflict from the ancient to the modern era deflates romantic notions of heroic combat. His shattered chessboards rise dramatically out of a barren terrain, recording a decline in human majesty even as he invites us to reconstrue more fruitful imaginings.""--BOOK JACKET. ""The Game Continues reproduces in full color a new series of 52 chess paintings by Bak. Holocaust scholar Lawrence L. Langer guides and enriches our understanding of this unusual artist's complex vision.""--BOOK JACKET.