The Chess Bookshelf

For as long as printing presses have been in existence, we’ve had chess books. “Game and Playe of the Chesse” was published by William Caxton after he printed The Bible and his translation of the history of Troy. This chess book was the first to make extensive use of wood cuttings for pictures.

One famous chess book is Wildhagen’s red book on Spassky’s games, before their 1972 World Championship match, Fischer used it as part of his preparation.

Chess book publishing took off in the 1930s as chess became a more respectable pursuit. And the boom of chess after Fischer’s defeat of Spassky also fueled an explosion in publishing titles about chess.

Before the rise of computers and Chessbase, books were an indispensable aid to the players. Whether they were periodicals, an endgame tome, tournament books, or an opening monologue, tactics or other training material, a chess player needed to be a bibliophile to keep up with latest chess trends.

With the computer era, we had the tools to check and correct analytical errors in chess books, leading to a rise of higher quality books. Despite the general availability of very strong computer chess engines the humble chess book retains its established place in chess circles.