Comments on: Greatest Chess Books (Part I)

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:20:25 +0000

@Finnegan Jack Gilbert is one of my favorite poets… it must have been enjoyable to play chess with him! I think lapsed chess zealots should keep each other company– they are the only safe opponents for one another…

@phaedral The Polgar book is good for what it is, but I don’t know that ANY collection of find the mate puzzles is likely to crack my “greatest of all time” category!

By: phaedral

phaedral — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:48:35 +0000

Glad to see a couple of my faves from my shelf in your number two and three spots. But what about Polgar’s door-stop book of mate-in-two puzzles?

By: Finnegan

Finnegan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:16:43 +0000

Will have to play some time. I’m fallen away chess zealot, too. I used play with this guy…no lie, not the Capablanca of course, but the author of the poem…
Jack Gilbert (from _The Great Fires_)…

Me and Capablanca

The sultry first night of July, he on the bed
reading one of Chandler’s lesser novels.
What he should be doing is in the other room.
Today he began carrying wood up from the valley,
already starting on winter. He closes the book
and goes naked into the pitch pines and the last
half-hour of the dark. Rain makes a sound
on the birches and a butternut tree. There is not
enough time left to use it for dissatisfaction.
Often it is hard to know when the middle game
is over and the end game beginning, the pure part
that is made more of craft than it is of magic.

By: Jared Stein

Jared Stein — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:22:01 +0000

Awesome list. Thanks! I played a lot of chess as a really young kid, but haven’t touched the game since I think 3rd grade. Basically I’m starting over. I can appreciate the obsessive aspect of the game, and intend to steer myself away from that. All I want at this point is to be able to think through the game, play without utterly embarrassing myself, and have some wits at solving chess puzzles for fun (you should see my wife’s face when I say “for fun” in the same sentence as “chess”).

I also want to pass the game down to my son and have some ability to coach him into the basics of the game.

Glad you mentioned attack chess–that’s next on my list of books to pick up! So even though you say you’re not very good at it, I offer you the chance to scour me any time!