Beyond Rare: Hyper-Rare Chess Books

Serious chess collectors will go ga-ga over these books.

All prices include shipping and handling. MC and V accepted.

See some photos of these books


"The Chess Player" by George Walker - 1841!

The Frontispiece, 'containing [Benjamin] Franklin's Essays on the Morals of Chess (!), .... to which are added The Three games played at one and the same time by Philidor.'

Published by Nathaniel Dearborn, Boston, 1841.

Language: English. Notation: old-style, e.g.

1. QP Two Squares 1. QP Two Squares 
to represent 1. d4 d5.

This book has been beautifully restored in a tan leather binding, and is in excellent condition. Photos available of the cover and frontispiece. The Benjamin Franklin essay makes for interesting reading. According to who I suppose to be George Walker, 'The following treatise was the production of Dr. Franklin, whose comprehensive mind, like the broboscis (? - did he mean proboscis? - MG) of an elephant, was alike capable of wielding the most mighty, and grasing the most minute subject'. Franklin pontificates on many chess-related subjects. For example, Benjamin states

'the game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. 
Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, 
are to be acquired or strengthened by it, 
so as to become habits, ready on all occasions.'
A good justification for Chess in the Schools! Photo available of a sample page of the Ben Franklin essay.

Price: $1,500.

"Chess Strategy" by Edward Lasker - 1917

'Chess Strategy' by Edward Lasker (written on book cover as 'Eduard Lasker'.) Second Edition, 1917.

A classic book of chess strategy, translated by Julius DuMont. Published by G. Bell and Sons, London. It goes from elementary concepts all the way through to annotated grandmaster games.

Language: English. Notation: Descriptive. This book is in its original maroon cloth binding, and is in good condition. Photos available of the exterior and some sample pages.

Price: $200

Nottingham 1936 Tournament Book by A.A. Alekhine

with additional material by GM S. Flohr and others, 'Fizikultura i sport', Moscow, 1962.

Top scorers: Botvinnik, Capablanca, Reshevsky, Fine, Euwe, Alekhine, Lasker, Flohr, Vidmar, Bogoljbow, et al.

Language: Russian. Long Algebraic Notation.

Price: $75. If you are interested in any of these books, contact:

IM Mark Ginsburg
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