Editorial Reviews:
This work chronicles the chess career and games of Grandmaster Isaac Kashdan, one of the leading United States players of the 1930s (along with such notables as Fine and Reshevsky). The main body of the work examines Kashdan's game play, with diagrams and analysis provided for many hundreds of his tournament games, match games, speed games, simultaneous exhibitions, training games and consultation games. Some games are accompanied by detailed contemporary analyses written by Kashdan and other prominent chess masters of his era. There are numerous photographs, as well as facsimiles of correspondence. Also included are tournament crosstables, and indexes of Kashdan's opponents.

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This book covers Romanian chess master Adolf Albin's brief but highly significant period spent in New York, 1893-1895, with details on his life and chess career.

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The 19th century in America saw the evolution of a leisure society. Enjoying numerous technological advances, people had free time to indulge in a variety of pursuits. An assortment of board games flooded American homes. By the middle of the century, chess had surpassed all other games with its popularity. The author of three important chess texts, Thomas Frere was instrumental in the growth of chess as a significant American pastime.
This work provides an historical and chronological look at the 19th century development of chess through the writings of Thomas Frere. His books, letters, chess columns and scrapbooks chronicles the ways chess evolved over the greater part of the 1800s, and illuminates important players of the time and their games. The main text is divided into four sections covering 1827-1900.

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Long known as one of the greatest chess masters of the nineteenth century, William Steinitz had a rich and elevated career and life, which can now be known as well. From Steinitz’s own writings and the fruits of extensive first-time-ever research by the author, a fascinating portrayal emerges of the life and genius of a man widely known as the "Bohemian Caesar" quite apart from his chess dominance.

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The Civil War affected the entire American landscape in ways not always given their due consideration. Not only did it determine the political future of a nation, it influenced the scientific and cultural development of the country as well. The war cost America many of its best and brightest in every venue. James A. Leonard was one such loss: a brilliant up-and-coming chess player in 1861-62 before he made the decision to serve his country during wartime.
Born November 6, 1841, James A. Leonard was the son of a poor Irish immigrant--but even a poor child could play the game of kings. Leonard grew up in a time when interest in chess was experiencing a revival, and contemporaries such as Paul Morphy, Eugene Delmar and Leonard's mentor Philip Richardson captured the interest of a country. Leonard defeated a number of the country's notable chess players and was widely viewed as the "New Morphy."
This biography discusses what little is known of Leonard's life and death but concentrates primarily on Leonard's ability and his sadly shortened career. Game scores and diagrams from 96 of Leonard's games are included, with detailed descriptions regarding place, date and opponents.

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This enormous and definitive work on the Englishman Amos Burn assembles and analyzes all extant games and provides a thorough biography of the famous chess master of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It chronicles in exceptional detail the broader picture of chess development throughout that era. Burn was active for a long time, winning victories over such masters as Blackburne, Marshall, Steinitz (his mentor), Alekhine, and Zukertort. He was a fighting player who relished tactical battles against his more romantic rivals but was also one of the world’s best defensive players.

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American Grandmaster Reuben Fine grew up in the East Bronx in an impoverished Russian-Jewish family, learning to play chess from an uncle at the age of eight. During his high school years, his stake winnings and coins earned from playing at a Coney Island concession helped support his family. After graduating from college, he decided to become a professional player. Though his active international career was brief, his accomplishment and talent are unmistakably significant.

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Walter Penn Shipley was crucial to the development of chess in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His contributions were very great. He organized correspondence chess in the United States in the 1890s, became a talented player and dangerous opponent, and a friend and supporter of world champions and contenders. He served as the treasurer of the Franklin Chess Club in Philadelphia and later as the club’s president at the height of its power and prestige.

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Long known as one of the greatest chess masters of the nineteenth century, William Steinitz is recognized as the first world champion. More exactly he has been officially acknowledged as the first American world chess champion. Luckily for chess scholars, many letters and postcards survive written by Steinitz and his associates, friends and foes. After years of research, numerous personal contacts with people on three continents, and unflagging efforts to acquire any and all known letters to and from Steinitz, the author here presents in their own words a remarkable account of Steinitz and his contemporaries in the chess world of over a century ago. Notable personalities that write or are written about include Lasker, Pillsbury, Zukertort, Bird, Blackburne, Janowski, Tschigorin and Winawer.

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This is a fictionalized account of the life and career of world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. Born into Russian nobility, Alekhine lost his family and nearly his life to the Bolsheviks before becoming the world’s most powerful chess player. The coming of World War II placed the chess master in a difficult position, forcing him to collaborate with the Nazis and to produce anti–Semitic materials. Desperate to win back his credibility after the war, Alekhine was preparing for the redemptive title match at the time of his sudden death. Alekhine’s life was marked by alcoholism, fits of depression, scandalous affairs, marriages of convenience, painful compromises, and his battle to become "the Greatest."

Editorial Reviews:
This is by a large degree the most comprehensive accounting of the games of this brilliant chess player. Presented are 2,543 of Alekhine’s games, in an exhaustive catalog that is the result of many years of digging-an effort unparalleled in the history of chess game collections. Many of the games are annotated by Alekhine and 1,868 diagrams appear overall. The book includes games from his earliest correspondence tournaments in 1902 through his final match with Francisco Lupi at Estoril, Portugal, in January 1946.

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On November 26, 1911, Samuel Herman Reshevsky was born in Ozorkov, Poland. At age six he became a chess professional and for seventy years he was a force on the international chess scene. This is by a very large margin the most comprehensive collection of Reshevsky’s games ever offered to the public. Arranged in chronological order, with mini-essays wrapping up each decade, the 1,768 games (match, tournament, exhibition, simultaneous, casual, speed, postal, blindfold and other) are given in full, with diagrams included for many.

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Frank Marshall (1877–1944) reigned as America’s chess champion from 1907 through 1936, the longest stint of anyone in history. A colorful character almost always decked out in an ascot and chewing a cigar, his career coincided with many evolutionary changes in competitive chess. Marshall was a master gamesman. He took up the game of salta, akin to Chinese checkers, and was soon world champion. But more than anything, he loved chess. He claimed that after learning the game at the age of 10 he played every day for the next 57 years. Marshall’s life and playing style are fully examined here, including 220 of his games (some never before published) with 190 positional diagrams.

Editorial Reviews:
This compendium provides an enormous amount of documentary data, usefully organized, much of it unseen since original (and often obscure) publication. Writings are by and about Capablanca; the minute details of his life and games proceed chronologically; the controversies of his career are especially well documented. The book has an index of games and positions, an index of openings, and a general index. Also found are 26 rare photographs on glossy plates.

Editorial Reviews:
The tragic last years of world chess champion Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946); 45 of his match and tournament games in Spain and Portugal from 1943 to 1946 and 100 other exhibition games from this period and from previous Iberian visits. Most of these 145 games have never been published in an English-language source. Also, included is a definitive biographical sketch of Alekhine in his last phase-marriages, alcoholism, and involvement with the Nazis. Indexed by openings, endings, players, and general subjects.