A huge amount was published about chess in the United Kingdom before the First World War. The growing popularity of chess in Victorian Britain was reflected in an increasingly competitive market of books and periodicals aimed at players from beginner to expert. The author combines new information about the early history of the game with advice for researchers into chess history and traces the further development of chess literature well into the 20th century. Topics include today's leading chess libraries and the use of digitized chess texts and research on the Web. Special attention is given to the columns that appeared in newspapers (national and provincial) and magazines from 1813 onwards. These articles, usually weekly, provide a wealth of information on early chess, much of which is not to be found elsewhere. The lengthy first appendix, an A to Z of almost 600 chess columns, constitutes a detailed research aid. Other appendices include corrections and supplements to standard works of reference on chess.

This book portrays British chess life in the nineteenth century through biographical studies of ten players who shaped the modern game. From Captain Evans, inventor of the famous gambit, to Isidor Gunsberg, England's first challenger for the world championship, personal narratives are blended with game annotations to reassess players' achievements and character. The author has combined deep reading in primary sources with genealogical research to reveal new facts and correct previous misunderstandings. Major chapters on Howard Staunton and William Steinitz, in particular, highlight the tensions between Englishmen and immigrants, amateurs and professionals. The contrasting long careers of Henry Bird and Joseph Blackburne provide a thread of continuity. The lives of several other important figures in Victorian chess are also presented. More than 160 chess games (with position diagrams), several annotated in detail, 50 photographs and line drawings, appendices include career records for all ten, notes, bibliography and indexes.

Exploring a bygone aspect of intellectual sport, this book details the history of British and Irish correspondence chess from the first formal match between Edinburgh and London in 1824 through the 1980s, the most successful period in British correspondence chess. It traces the development of postal chess, including the growth of regional and national chess associations after World War I; the dawn of game-changing technologies such as telegraphs, the telephone, radio, and fax machines; the earliest transatlantic matches between the U.S. and the U.K.; the founding of the International Correspondence Chess Association in 1945; and the breaking of the Soviet monopoly on the world team championship in 1982, the final act of the joint Great Britain team before Scotland and Wales obtained separate membership in the International Correspondence Chess Federation. Appendices list tournament champions; I.C.C.F. title holders; known club matches; and excerpts from rules and other primary documents.

Drawing on new research, this biography of William Steinitz (1836-1900), the first World Chess Champion, covers his early life and career, with a fully-sourced collection of his known games until he left London in 1882. A portrait of mid-Victorian British chess is provided, including a history of the famous Simpson's Divan. Born to a poor Jewish family in Prague, Steinitz studied in Vienna, where his career really began, before moving to London in 1862, bent on conquering the chess world. During the next 20 years, he became its strongest and most innovative player, as well as an influential writer on the game. A foreigner with a quarrelsome nature, he suffered mockery and discrimination from British amateur players and journalists, which eventually drove him to immigrate to America. The final chapters cover his subsequent visits to England and the last three tournaments he played there.

Clear, straightforward guide by noted expert coaches readers through fundamentals of attacking and positional play, as well as how to approach the endgame. Crucial processes of assessing positions and choosing moves are examined in depth; also, how to cope with difficult positions and time-trouble. 384 diagrams.

El libro se presenta como un manual de batalla para el jugador que pretende tener exito en el ajedrez por correspondencia.

This highly topical and relevant book for parents will help with raising not only life long learners, but children with long and happy learned lives.Young people are entering a world that requires more than straight 'A's (if it ever did) and yearns for the well rounded, multiple intelligent, creative and mature individual that can manage change and complexity without getting upset, petulant and stomping off in a huff. The focus in this informative, entertaining and ultimately practical book is very straight forward: to provide parents with practical skills, based on solid research, to assist their children to become, not only life long learners, but live a long and happy learned life.