This book covers the 1971 U.S. Open championship held in Ventura California between August 8 and 20, 1971. It has a tournament summary, detailed cross tables, photographs, diagrams, and many games. Some of the games are annotated. Unusual for the time, it is in algebraic notation. It has 130 pages. As can be seen by the photograph above, the tournament was quite strong, and was won by Walter Browne and Larry Evans, followed by Reshevsky, Lombardy, Ree, Benko, Saidy, Tarjan and Gheorghiu, among others. Incidentally, the last named player  has recently published a three volume collection of his games in English, translated from the original Romanian. He once defeated Bobby Fischer! (Fischer did not play in this tournament.) Lowest price as of June 2024 on the Book search engine. Addall dot com is $18. The apparent stains on the back cover are not real; they are shadows.


Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

The Chessplayer No. 189

72nd Annual U.S. Open Chess Championship 


This is the classic book on the accelerated Sicilian dragon. This variation lets black, avoid the dreaded Yugoslav attack with Bc4, h4-h5 etc. 176 pages, 181 diagrams. English descriptive notation. This book will let players up to 2100 ELO play the first 15 moves with confidence;  chess masters will need a more current monograph and databases. This book is in pristine condition rare for its age. The dust jacket has had its price clipped as shown in the photos.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Sicilian-Accelerated Dragons

John Nunn

Graham Burgess

Joe Gallagher

John Emms

I think that this book is still the best one volume openings manual. It was one of the first books to have computer check of the analysis. Although published in 1999 most of the analysis is still valid for players under 2000 ELO. Masters will need to use more modern monographs and chess databases. The paper is beginning to tan due to the pulp nature of the paper used. 544 pages! Large format trade paperback, nearly 2 pounds in weight!

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Nunn's Chess Openings is written by a team of experts -- four writers who are acclaimed as outstanding chess writers and experts in their fields. The expert team's collective knowledge and experience covers all openings. Each section is written by a player with expertise in that area, enabling Nunn's Chess Openings to provide the sort of insider knowledge that can only be gained by playing an opening against tough opposition.Setting it above the rest, the majority of game references are from the 1990s. Computers have also been used to make the book extremely accurate: full use has been made of databases of millions of games; tables have been generated from computer files, eliminating notation errors, impossible variations, etc.; powerful analytical engines have assisted with the analysis of tactical positions; a final blundercheck has made sure there are no wrong moves given.

Nunn's Chess Openings

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The Chess Player series competed with the chess informant in the late 1960’s to 1970s. Many thought it was superior to Chess Informant. This contains games from 1974, including the chess Olympiad in Nice France, and both United States and Soviet championships. Almost all the games are annotated in languageless figurine algebraic notation by many international chess masters and grandmasters. Tournament turntables, and a section of opening analysis by the Polish master Pytel are included. The covers are worn with bent lower corners, and someone has marked the spine with the word. “chess“ in black marker. A price of $5.95 is boldly written on the front free endpaper in pencil. The binding is sturdy. 1265 games are analyzed! 336 pages.

The Chess Player 7B 1974

These are two older monographs about chess openings. Harding is a talented correspondence chess master and chess historian who writes about uncommon, but annoying openings to face in practical play. Wall is a chess master who gives detailed opening analysis followed by 50 annotated games. Both books will give the under 2000 player all he or she needs to know to face or play the openings analyzed. Harding’s book is in descriptive notation and Wall’s in algebraic notation.

Irregular Openings and Larsen’s Opening

Michell was a strong British player with victories over Reti, Bogoljubow and Sultan Khan, and draws with Alekhine, Capablanca, Botvinnik and Euwe. FIDE Master Hansen has expanded and revised the original book by Du Mont. This book has been praised by notable Chess Collectors (see the reviews on amazon.com). A further expanded version in hardcover has been released with 30 additional pages (beyond the 318 pages here) and five additional games(beyond the 67 games here). By buying my copy  you save $6 over Amazon’s softcover and $14 over the hardcover prices. Is less than 10% additional material worth nearly double the price? Up to you to decide.

A master of British chess

Reginald Pryce Michell

Irving Wallace

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Emily Ashcroft continues her father's work after his freakish death. He believed that Hitler and Braun survived and were now in Berlin. Emily is aided by a diverse group of people in her quest.

The Seventh Secret

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This hard to find novel has been called the best novel about the world of chess by the New York Times. The binding glue had become undone, and has been repaired with archival glue.The price is reduced because of condition; lowest price on eBay as of late April 2024 is over $12.

The dragon variation

This is the Yugoslav periodical covering the time period October 1994 to January 1995. It has 616 games, plus combinations and endings to study. It is in good condition with rare neat marginalia as shown. Former owner’s signature is present. The best players of the time have contributed; see the photograph for the list of contributors. Notation is in figurine algebraic. ￼

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

October 1994-January 1995

Chess Informant

This is a reprint of a old openings book with excellent coverage of gambit openings poorly covered in more modern books. The book is in excellent condition except that the binding shows a crack between pages 104 and 105 but there are no loose pages, and no markings that I could see, although I did not inspect every page. Lowest price on a book search engine as of April 2024 is $10, and eBay $13.

Chess openings ancient and modern

Sergei Soloviev

This massive, very hard to find book includes games heavily annotated by the Bulgarian international chess master. The notation is figurine algebraic and there is extensive biographical information in English and tournament tables. Lowest price on Amazon and eBay as of April 2024 is $95. There is a revised edition of 400 games which starts at $200 on Amazon!

Boris Spassky’s 300 Wins

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This book covers the former world champions career through 1971, that is, before his first match with Fischer. It has numerous diagrams and a few tactical exercises to solve. The spine is slightly sun faded as shown and the former owner’s signature is on the front free endpaper, else almost like new condition. The games are well annotated. It is an English descriptive notation.

Spassky’s 100 Best Games

This rare book, almost impossible to find, was published by the famous chess book collector, David Delucia. I think it was translated from the original German. Mieses had an attractive attacking playing style. It was bound with a plastic spike type binding. The lower 1/3 of the spikes have become detached, but the binding overall is still intact. Condition is downgraded from like new to good because of this.

My best games

This book is in German language. It contains a detailed biography, as well as 56 annotated games. Diemer along with Blackmar devised the gambit which bears his name, and which is extremely popular among class players. This book is currently not available from a North American seller. Copies with shipping from Europe run over $50. The last photo is a Google Translate translation of the rear cover. ￼

Ein Leben für das Schach im Spiegel seiner Zeit

Emil Joseph Diemer

This is the famous book with the plot based on the chess game between Steinitz and Chigorin, game 16 of the second match. It is in overall good condition except that the last page is torn as shown, but is supplied in photocopy. The game score of the actual game is also supplied. Lowest price on eBay and Amazon is over seven dollars; price reduced due to condition.


The squares of the city

This is the English language tournament book of the famous interzonal (to Select players for the candidates tournament for the world championship) in 1970 won by Bobby Fischer. The book is uncommon, and a copy in similar condition sold for $73 about a year ago at the Chess auction site,chesslund.com. A copy in poor condition is currently for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $32. This book is in like new condition. The glued binding is perfectly intact. There is no marginalia, and no foxing. There are detailed notes, diagrams, and photographs. The book is in English descriptive notation as shown in the photographs. Own a piece of chess history!

Interzonal Chess Tournament Palma 1970

The former US champion annotates the 30 games of this strong chess tournament. This book is in overall excellent condition, but as it is ex-library I have listed it as being in good condition. It lacks the dust jacket. The current lowest starting bid on eBay listed by another seller as of March 25, 2024 is $49.95.

An account of theLessing Rosenwald Tournament New York 1954-1955

Trophy Chess

Jan Timman

This book contains 80 of the Dutch grandmaster’s best games. At one time, he was ranked number three in the world. His annotations are universally praised as being exemplary. Former owner’s signature on the free front and paper,. I found a single red dot of marginalia as shown in the photos. I have priced this 10% lower than the lowest price on Amazon marketplace.


Chess the adventurous way

Jan Timman is one of the world's most imaginative and uncompromising players. His fighting style has provided the chess public with dozens of beautiful games. This fully-annotated selection of eighty of Timman's best games since 1983, includes victorie

Timman's Select Games

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Iakov Neishtadt

The author works backwards through the various stages of a chess attack, as well as a short section on defense and endgame. It is excellently translated from the Russian original. The book has sun fading of the spine and the upper 1 inch of the front and back covers else is in excellent condition. Former owner’s signature is present on the free Front endpaper. Lowest price at a popular book search engine is nearly $35, and over $40 on eBay, as of January 31, 2024.

Paul Keres Chess Master Class

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This is the periodic Yugoslav collection of the best games of the era covered. See the photos for a partial list of the annotators, which include Karpov, Ivanchuk, Korchnoi and Judit Polgar. 658 games and 366 pages plus endings and combinations I found a rare instance of marginalia as shown in the photos. Condition is downgraded from excellent to good because of the marginalia.￼ It includes the match Morovic versus Korchnoi, surprisingly won by the former.

Covering June through September 1991

Chess Informant 52

This is the classic periodical from Yugoslavia digesting the most important games of the period covered. It would be in like new condition, except for a very rare red dot over occasional games to mark where the previous owner had played over the game. Please see the photos for an example. Annotators include the stars of the period, including then world champion Kasparov and former champion Karpov. 628 games, 428 pages, plus additional combinations and endgames. ￼

February through May 1992

Chess Informant 54

Jeroen Bosch

This is volume 9 of the series of early opening innovations to get your opponent out of book mode quickly. The innovations are sound, but your opponent is very unlikely to have any preparation against it. Please see the photos for the variations included in the book. Unfortunately, the series has ceased publication, and these books are now becoming uncommon.

No time to study chess opening theory? Secrets of Opening Surprises (SOS) consists of highly playable, unusual opening ideas. Because an SOS is such an early deviation from the regular lines in mainstream openings (usually before move six), the probability of you being able to bring the variation actually on the board is very high. If you are tired of main lines, if you are looking for simple but effective weapons to perplex your opponent, then you will feel very much at home in the world of SOS.

Secrets of Opening Surprises Volume 9

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Alexander Khalifman

Natalia Alexeeva

Now out of print, this book gives a rock solid opening repertoire for the black side. The lowest price on the Book search engine, addall.com, is over $20.

Opening for Black According to Karpov

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This book is extraordinarily hard to find. Covers are slightly sun faded as shown in the photographs and former owner’s signature on the front free endpaper. It is a translation from the original Russian edition, with additional material. Annotators include Tal, Bronstein, Karpov, Kavalek, Hort, Polugayevsky and Kholmov, and others. This was one of the strongest tournaments in the last 50 years, won by Tal and Karpov in front of Spassky, Portisch, Timman etc. The late, great Bent Larsen finished in last place! Another copy I sold on Pango went very quickly. The book includes photographs, player histories, diary of the tournament by the journalist  Roshal, interviews with the winners, and the interesting feature, cardiogram of a chess game as shown.￼Lowest price on abebooks as of 12/30/23 was $77.86, $68.91 on ebay 2/11/24.

Browse by categories

Jack Spence

72nd Annual U.S. Open Chess Championship

D. N. L. Levy

Sicilian-Accelerated Dragons

John Nunn; Graham Burgess; Joe Gallagher; John Emms

Nunn's Chess Openings

K. Pytel, Gheorghiu, Gufeld, Benko, Browne, Hübner, Hort, Boleslavsky et al

The Chess Player 7B 1974

T D Harding and Bill Wall

Irregular Openings and Larsen’s Opening

Julius Du Mont and Carsten Hansen

Reginald Pryce Michell

Irving Wallace

The Seventh Secret

Anthony Glyn

The dragon variation

Matanovuc, Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi et al

Chess Informant

E. Freeborough and C. E. Ranken

Chess openings ancient and modern

Semko Semkov

Boris Spassky’s 300 Wins

Bernard Cafferty

Spassky’s 100 Best Games

Jacques Mieses

My best games

Georg Studier

Emil Joseph Diemer

John Brunner

The squares of the city

R G Wade and L S Blackstock

Interzonal Chess Tournament Palma 1970

Larry Evans

Trophy Chess

Jan Timman

Timman's Select Games

Iakov Neishtadt

Paul Keres Chess Master Class

Matanovic, Judit Polgar, Karpov et al

Chess Informant 52

Matanovic, Karpov,Kasparov et al

Chess Informant 54

Jeroen Bosch

Secrets of Opening Surprises Volume 9

Alexander Khalifman; Natalia Alexeeva

Opening for Black According to Karpov

Mikhail Tal, V. Chepizhny, A. Roshal

Montreal 1979

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