Catalogue of the Auction No. 4, 25-27 October 2001
Rare Books Tournament Books Chess Strategy and General Works Chess Encyclopaedias and Reference Books Chess Composition Chess Periodicals Signed Books Chess Memorabilia
Rare Books
Lot No 1. Hyde Thomas [De Ludis Orientabilis libri duo] Here is one of the Mandragorias, seu Historia Shahiludii [Historia Nerdiludii] illustrations in the Oxford, e Theatro Sheldoniano, 1694 book: 2 volumes in one, Octavo, First Edition. Engraved folding plates, engraved and woodcut illustrations. Expert repair to the title. Vellum bound. Some contemporary writing on first paste down page. Browning throughout, but very clean. A beautiful copy of a very scarce and important book. VDL Geschichte 1 p.88 Schachlitteratur 1247; KB 173; Wing 3877 and 3875.
Murray described Mandragorias, sue Shahiludii as the first really scientific contribution to the history of chess. This volume examines the earliest traces of chess and reaches the conclusion that it was invented in India and thence taken to Iran and Arabia. Written in Latin with large verbatim extracts in other languages and alphabets, it was reprinted in 1767. The second volume Historia Nerdiludii (bound in as is usual) treated in a similar way of other oriental games.
The author, Thomas Hyde (B. 1634 D.1702) was one of the first Oriental scholars of his age and was successively Professor of Hebrew and Arabic in Oxford. Hyde was one of the first Europeans to gain a knowledge of Chinese and was interpreter of Oriental languages for Charles II, James II and William III.
MB 1100 euro.
Tournament Books Lot No 2. 'The Chess Tournament A Collection of The Games Played At This Celebrated Assemblage. Illustrated by Copious Diagrams and Notes Critical and Explanatory. Half Title, Title, Contents, Errata, Introduction. 2L, 6p Lxci, 377 pages. London, Henry Bohn & Son 1852. L/N 5179.
The first international chess tournament. It was organised by Howard Staunton ostensibly as a vehicle to confirm his superiority. However, he was upstaged by Anderssen who won the first prize.
Beautifully bound in half calf with gilt-tooled spine and raised bands with marbled boards. Slight scuffing to top and bottom of spine and to corners. Foxing to front free endpaper, half title and title page and contents. Otherwise clean throughout.
MB 140 euro.
Lot No 3. Der Schachcongress Zu London im Jahre 1862 nebst dem Schachcongresse zu Bristol im Jahre 1861, Herausgegaben vo Berthold Suhle. Zweiter Theil: Die Preisproblem die consultationspartieen Und das tournier zu Bristol. Berlin 1864. L/N 5186 & 5191.Two volumes; hard bound with marbled boards and end papers. Original covers bound in. Slight foxing. The volume with London-1862 has ink stamps on the title page and on the last page and on the back (bound-in) cover. Very good condition otherwise.
MB 80 euro.
Lot No 4. ‘The Chess Congress of 1862.’ A Collection of The Games Played and a Selection of the Problems sent in for competition, edited by J. Löwenthal. London, 1864. 1st edition. L/N 5188. Bound, with embossed boards and spine, gilt spine is bumped and slightly chipped top and bottom, it is rubbed and slightly worn, the boards has some discolouration, corners of the boards are slightly bumped. The dedication page and the title-page are slit at hinge, the dedication page is loose and attached with tape on the bottom. Light foxing to the title page, clean throughout. Pages XXIV and XL are fixed with tape at hinge, page XLI is fixed with tape in the middle without a loss of text, otherwise condition is good.
MB 60 euro.
Lot No 5. Congres International Des Echecs de 1867. Organised by M. Exterior of the book: Alphonse Fery D’Esclands. Published by G.R. Neumann & J. Arnous de Riviere. Paris 1868. L/N 5194 Won by Anderssen ahead of Paulsen, Owen, MacDonnell, Dubois, Steinitz. [4] xcii 484 pages. Full tree calf leather binding with gilt-tooled spine; slightly bumped top and bottom. Marbled end papers, slight water stain to title and half-title. Slight foxing in parts. Stain to part top fore-edge not encroaching on pages. Signature of Alberto de Costa-Veiga on title. Very scarce and desirable book in a very good condition.
MB 250 euro. Lot No 6. Crefeld 1871. Der Neunte Rheinische Schackcongress abgehalten zu Crefeld am 4 bis 7 August 1871. Herausgegeben vom Redacteur der Deutschen Schachzeitung. Leipzig 1874. L/N 5199. 50 pages.
Quarter-bound, the spine is rubbed, minor stamps on the paste-down endpaper. Condition is very good.
MB 90 euro.
Lot No 7. Der Funfte Kongress des Deutschen Schachbundes Frankfurt a.M. 1887. Herausgeben von C.von Bardeleben, H. von Gottschall und J. Mieses. Leipzig 1889. L/N 5223 Mackenzie ahead of Weiss, Blackburne, Bardeleben, Berger, Tarrasch, Englisch, Schallop, Paulsen [4] 288 pages. Later cloth binding. Expert substantial repair to title, no loss of text. Evidence of previous tape repair to spine, professionally restored, some chipping to bottom corner of Vorvoert page. Pages uncut and clean throughout. Condition good.
MB 120 euro.
Lot No 8. The Sixth American Chess Congress 1889. W. Steinitz Only 500 copies produced. L/N 5232. Copy no 58 issued to Thomas Long (Dublin), chess author. Long was a subscriber to the issue but was also one of the relatively few, only 44, who made a donation towards the production of this, possible the finest tournament book ever produced. Hence the low number of the volume allocated to him. His name and the donation is recorded in the subscription list on page xxxiii.
Because of its large size this book is rarely encountered unshaken or without damage to the spine. This book is in very sound condition with some splitting to the front internal hinge only. There is a slight ring mark on the front board diagram, slight dulling to gilding on spine and slight bumping to top and bottom of spine. There is a library stamp (Blass) on the first free endpaper. Gilt top and uncut edges. This is an excellent example of a rare and much sought after tournament book.
MB 300 euro.
Lot No 9. The Hastings Chess Tournament 1895. Edited by Horace F. Cheshire. Containing the Authorised Account of the 230 Games Played Aug-Sept. 1895. London 1896. L/N 5239 [xii] 370 pages 32 pages advertisements. One of the greatest tournaments and Pilsbury’s finest triumph ahead of all of the best players of the time: Tchigorin, Lasker, Tarrasch, Steinitz, Schiffers, Bardeleben, Teichmann, Schlechter, Blackburne, Walbrodth et al. Portraits and biographies of all participants. Cloth binding, gilt embossed front board, gilt spine slightly faded, slight splitting to front hinge, slightly shaken. Clean throughout. Condition good.
MB 90 euro. Lot No 10. Stockholm 1897, Kopenhamn 1899, och Goteborg 1901. De Nordiska Schackkongresserna. Utgifna af H.Krause, A.C. Rosendahl och F. Englund. L/N 5248 All three congresses bound together and set within cloth boards with original paper covers laid on. Frontispiece photograph of all participants at recto of title page on each congress book respectively. Pages uncut and very clean throughout. Slight dulling to laid-on cover. Condition very good.
MB 70 euro.
Lot No 11. Stockholm 1905. Tredje Kongress med Turnering. Nordiska Schackforbundets Gustaf och Ludwig Collijn. L/N 5275. Pettersson ahead of Langborg, Svensson. Sjoberg, Englund, Lillja.
The book is complete, the pagination running from 136-204, being off-printed from Tidscrift for Schack Frontispiece. Original paper covers chipped and split top and bottom of spine. Clean throughout. Condition good.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 12. St. Petersburg 1909. Mezhdunarodniy shakhmatniy Title-page: kongress v pamyat M. I. Chigorina. St. Petersburg 1909. The collected games of International master tournament, under edition of E. Lasker and E. A. Znosko-Borovsky, and the tournament of Russian amateurs, under edition of B. E. Maljutin. St. Petersburg, published by St. Petersburg chess society, 1910 [5], 336 pages; 2 portrait pages. [1.010 copies published] L/N 5296. Sakharov No. 77.
Hardback - later binding, large format. Expert repair to the title page and to a few other pages in the book, without affecting the text - otherwise condition is very good. Very scarce book.
MB 250 euro.
Lot No 13. XVII. Congress des Deutschen Schachbundes, e.V Hamburg 1910. Printed Coborg 1911. L/N 5297. Possibly Schlecter’s greatest triumph ahead of Duras, Niemzowitsch, Spielmann, Marshall, Teichmann, Alechin, Dus-Chotimirski, Forgacs, Tarrasch, Kohnlein, Leonhardt, Salwe, Tartakower, Speijer, John and Yates.
Later hard bound with marbled boards and the original paper cover laid on. Some slight pencil annotations throughout. Library stamp (Blass) to title. Very clean and crisp - very scarce book in a very good condition.
MB 140 euro. Lot No 14. Schlechter-Tarrasch match of 1911. Der Schachwettkampf Schlechter-Tarrasch, auf dem Jubilaums-Kongress des Lolner Schachklubs. Leipzig 1912. L/N 5054. 136 pages. Cloth binding. Very clean and crisp - condition is very good.
MB 80 euro.
Lot No 15. Breslau 1912. XVIII Kongress De Deutschen Schachbundes, e.V. Breslau 1912. Printed Coburg 1913. L/N 5310. Won by Duras and Rubenstein ahead of Teichmann, Schlechter, Tarrasch, Marshall, Spielmann, Baracs, Breyer, Mieses and Przepiorka.
Hard bound with marbled boards. Very clean throughout. Library stamp (Blass) on title. Very good condition. Scarce
MB 250 euro.
Lot No 16. Havana 1913. Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez. Celebrado en la Habana del 15 de Febrero al 6 de Marzo 1913. Coleccion de las partidas jugadas en el mismo con notas analiticas por J. R. Capablanca, campeon de Cuba. Havana, 1913. 118 pages. L/N 5316. Marshall beat Capablanca 1½:½ and won the event with 10½ out of 14, ahead of Capablanca (10) and Janowski (9). There X-tables and photos of the winners in the book.
In original soft covers, very clean. Condition is very good.
MB 50 euro.
Lot No 17. Kristiania 1917. 8de Schakkongres med Turnering. Nordiska Schakforbundets. Gustaf och Ludwig Collijn . L/N 5327. Nyholm ahead of Berndtsson, Smedal, Sjoberg, Giersing, Lowenborg. Original paper covers. Frontispiece interleaved. Unopened. Clean throughout. Condition very good.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 18. Der 20. Kongress Des Deutschen Schachbundes (E.V.) Berlin 1920. Leipzig. L/N 5335 Won by Saemisch ahead of Schonman, Blumich, Emmerich, Sprecher, Gobl, Brinkmann, Woehl and Bodenstein.
Hardbound with marbled boards. Blass ex libris on the title page; paper browned as is usual. Very good condition throughout.
MB 70 euro. Lot No 19. The Book of the London International Chess Congress 1922. Containing all the games played in the masters Section and a small selection from the Minor Tournaments. With original and quoted Annotations by Geza Maroczy. Watts, London 1923.
Won by Capablanca with one loss ahead of Alekhine who was undefeated. Followed by Vidmar, Rubinstein, Bogolyubov, Tartakower, Reti, Maroczy, Yates, Atkins, Euwe, Waltuch, Znosko- Borovsky, Morrison, Watson and Marotti.
Original cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine. Pencil signature to front endpaper, heavy foxing to first four printed pages thereafter. Clean apart from minor foxing at edges, which are uncut. Portraits (12) of almost all participants. Condition good.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 20. Bad Sliac 1932 Sammlung der 91 Partien Dieses Tourniers. Rudolph Spielmann Wien 1932. L/N 5463. Flohr and Vidmar ahead of Pirc, Canal, Maroczy, Spielmann, Treybal, Bogolyubov, Pokorney, Opocensky, Walter, Rohacek, May and Engel.
Original paper binding, covers slightly marked and chipped. Clean throughout, very slight turndown at some corners. Condition good
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 21. Bad Liebwerda 1934 Kongress des Deutschen Front cover: Schachverbandes in der Tschechoslowakei. Sammlung von 57 Partien des Tourniers. Bearbeit von Albert Becker. Wien 1934. L/N 5478. Original paper binding with frontispiece. Slight chipping and marking, otherwise condition is very good.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 22. Moscow 1935. Vtoroj mezdunarodniy sakhmatniy turnir Moskva 1935. Moskva/Leningrad, 1936. L/N 5506; Sakharov No. 500. 1-2 Botvinnik & Flohr - ahead of Lasker, Capablanca and Spielmann (20 participants).
596 pages, original cloth, decorated front board and spine. Some dulling to spine and boards. Front and rear hinges split. Inscription in Cyrillic to recto of half title, condition otherwise good. Copy with foreword of Krylenko! He was Minister for Justice and head of Soviet Chess Federation. Later he was executed and most books had any trace of his name removed.
MB 80 euro. Lot No 23. Rosario 1939 (I - Najdorf) and Margate 1939 (I - Keres). L/N 5608. A bound volume (175 pages) of 'Enroque!!' ('Revista De Ajedres', Necochea) of 1943, which contain games of those 2 tournaments, as well as other materials (tournament reports, problems, etc).
MB 25 euro.
Lot No 24. Buenos Aires 1941 (I-II - Najdorf & Stahlberg) and Montevideo 1941 (I - Eliskases). L/N 5619. A bound volume of 'Enroque!!' ('Revista De Ajedres', Necochea) of 1943, which contain games of those 2 tournaments, as well as other materials (tournament reports, problems, etc).
MB 25 euro.
Lot No 25. Nottingham 1946. The Book of the British Chess Federation’s congress. Aldis, Reilly, Wood, Notes by Imre Konig. Sutton Coldfield. L/N 5693.
Original cloth binding. Some slight pencil marks, otherwise clean throughout. Signature of Imre Konig on paste down endpaper. Condition good.
MB 10 euro.
Lot No 26. Siegen 1970 Chess Olympiad. Ray Keene & David Levy. 248 pages. Fisher’s great pre- championship game with Spassky the main feature. Cloth bound with slight fading and marking to spine & boards. Clean throughout with some pencil marks to openings index. Condition good.
MB 10 euro.
Lot No 27. Nice 1974 Chess Olympiad. Ray Keene & David Levy. [vii] 200 pages. Cloth bound clean throughout; condition good.
MB 100 euro.
Lot No 28. Bulletins of the 33rd Chess Olympiad (Elista 1998). A set of 13 (No. 1-13) nicely produced large bulletins, which contain games and results of the event, round reports and numerous photos.
Olympiad bulletins are highly collectable items. Usually a few years after the Olympiad, it is very hard to find such bulletins.
MB 45 euro. Lot No 29. Bulletins of the 34th Chess Olympiad (Istanbul 2000). A set of 14 nicely produced large bulletins and a program. These bulletins contain games and results of the event, round reports and numerous photos. The early issue had numerous mistakes in them, so half-way through the tournament the organisers, obviously being very proud of the whole project, re-printed them. They insisted that the old, faulty issues had to be swapped for the new ones.
It was not possible to acquire extra sets of bulletins at the Istanbul Olympiad, so this is only the second set which I've seen up for sale (one was sold at one of our previous auctions).
MB 80 euro.
Chess Strategy and General Works
Lot No 30. 'An Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess' containing one This is the title-page hundred examples of games, and a great variety of critical situations and and the exterior of the conclusions: including the whole of Philidor's Analysis. With copious book: Selections from Stamma, the Calabrois, etc. To which are added, Caissa: a poem by Sir William Jones; The Morals of Chess, by Dr. Franklin; Chess and Whist compared; Anecdotes respecting chess and Chess-players, etc. London, 1813. L/N 611. Third edition of this important work.
Old calf binding, guilt spine; slight bumping and rubbing to edges and corners of the boards. Very clean throughout, except for light foxing. Ex libris of E. Reginald McDix on the paste-down endpaper. Condition is very good.
MB 80 euro
Chess Encyclopaedias and Reference Books
Lot No 31. 'The Batsford Chess Encyclopaedia' by Nathan Divinsky. London, 1990. ISBN 0-7134- 6214-0. Cloth binding, with guilt spine. Very clean and crisp throughout. Condition very good.
MB 20 euro.
Chess Composition Lot No 32. 'English Chess Problems' Containing, in Parts I. And II. A selection of the best problems by English composers, living and lately deceased and, in part III. a set specially composed for this work and not hitherto published. Edited by James Pierce and W. Timbre Pierce. London, 1876. L/N 2423. This massive (683 pages) volume contains 608 problems with solutions.
Cloth binding with guilt spine and guilt upper cover. The boards are slightly rubbed and the upper cover is slightly soiled (see black mark on the picture). Internally very clean, except for light foxing to the title page. Condition good.
MB 45 euro
Chess Periodicals
Lot No 33. Complete set (4 vol.) of the Russian chess magazine 'Shakhmaty Vestnik' 1913-1916. Editor - Alexey Alekhine. L/N 6320, Sakharov No. 216. Circulation (number of copies printed): 1000. Pagination continious: 1913 (394 pages), 1914 (378 pages), 1915 (346 pages) and 1916 (256 pages). Popular magazine, covering tournaments, correspondence chess, chess composition and bibliography.
All volumes are nicely bound with marbled boards, all are in very good condition. Extremely rare periodical.
MB 700 euro.
Lot No 34. 4 volumes of the Soviet chess magazine 'Shakhmaty i Shashki v Rabochem Klube' {‘Chess & Checkers in Worker's Club’} Editor - N. Krylenko. Moscow, 1925-1930. L/N 6329, Sakharov No. 939. On offer: years 1926-1929. It was a popular magazine in the USSR, with a good coverage of chess composition: V. Platov and A. Seleznev edited the section of studies; while L. Isayev and S. Levman did the section of problems. Circulation (number of copies printed): 1926 - between 3.750 and 6.250; 1927 - between 4.000 and 8.200; 1928 - between 6.750 and 9.000; 1929 - between 6.000 and10.000. All volumes are bound, all are in very good condition. Very rare periodical.
MB 350 euro.
Lot No 35. 'British Chess Magazine' - volume of 1963. Cloth binding, sprinkled edges. Very clean and crisp throughout. Condition is very good. Such volumes retail at about £20 sterling each at the BCM site (www.bcmchess.co.uk), when available.
MB 15 euro. Lot No 36. 'British Chess Magazine' - 3 volumes: 1965, 1966 and 1967. Cloth binding, sprinkled edges. All volumes are uniformly bound, with the volumes of 1967 having slightly different colour of the covers. All are very clean and crisp throughout. Condition is very good. Such volumes retail at about £20 sterling each at the BCM site (www.bcmchess.co.uk), when available.
MB 50 euro.
Signed Books
Lot No 37. 'Los Triunfos del Problemista Argentino 1916-1956' by A. Ellerman. Buenos Aires 1956. 24 pages, softback. Contains 93 problems with solutions. Dedicated by the author to Luis Palau, 1957.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 38. 'Stormot Taflfelags Reykjavikur' 1957 Little Icelandic tournament book. Olafsson won that tournament with 8½ out of 11, ahead of GMs Benko, Stahlberg, Pilnik and others. Dedicated by Grandmaster and Former FIDE President Fridrik Olafsson to H. Toffano.
MB 40 euro.
Chess Memorabilia
Lot No 39. Photo of GM Miguel Najdorf and former World Champion Max Euwe.
Najdorf, Province Delegate and Dr. Euwe, casino in Mar del Plata, 1947.
MB 30 euro.
Lot No 40. Three score sheets of the game Pilnik-Czerniak, Mar del Plata 1950, which went for 191 moves - certainly a record, at least at that time. There are signatures both players. Very curious item!
MB 50 euro. Lot No 41. Photo of Toran, GMs Trifunovic, Bisguier and Ivkov.
Taken at the 'Torneo P. Peron' in Buenos Aires in 1955
MB 7 euro.
Lot No 42. Photo of GMs Donner, Bisguier, Pilnik and Najdorf.
Taken in Buenos Aires in 1955. Near GM Pilnik - his sister Ruth; behind GM Najdorf - probably Marini.
MB 25 euro.
Lot No 43. 40 tournament programs. Tournament programs could be highly collectible items. In this lot there are 40 of them - from USSR, Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, India, Holland, France, etc, including the programs of the FIDE World Championship 2000 and Brain Games World Championship 2000. This lot is a great way to start collecting tournament programs!
MB 50 euro.
Lot No 44. Tournament program of Candidate Matches of 1990. This is a tournament program of Gelfand-Nicolic and Timman-Huebner matches in Sarajevo. Signed by GMs Gelfand and Nicolic, as well as by arbiters Boris Postovsky and GM Svetozar Gligoric.
MB 10 euro.
Lot No 45. Linares-1990, tournament program. Most participants (except Dr. Huebner) signed this program: Beliavsky, Ivanchuk, Portisch, Short, Kasparov, Gelfand, Spassky, Illescas, Ljubojevic, Salov and Yusupov.
MB 50 euro.
Lot No 46. Boleslavsky's script. This is corrections and additions by famous GM and well-known theoretician Isaac Boleslavsky to his books on King's Indian, Gruenfeld, Benoni and Volga Gambit, published in DDR. Typed pages, with a few hand-written remarks. This is an interesting example of how opening books were written in the pre-computer era. About 80 pages. In Russian.
MB 20 euro.