Author: Harold James "H J R" Ruthven Murray (1868-1955)
Year: 1913
Publisher: University of Oxford Press
Place: Oxford
Description:
900 pages with frontispiece, illustrations, plates, tables, diagrams and index. Small quarto (10 1/2" x6 3/4") bound in original publisher's blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine. From the library of Jens Endevoldsen. (Betts: 5-6). First edition.
The author's aim: "to present as complete a record as possible of the varieties of chess which exist, or have existed, in different parts of the world; to investigate the ultimate origin of these games and the circumstances of the invention of chess; and to trace the development of the modern European game from the first appearance of its ancestor, the Indian Chaturanga". The result is a comprehensive history, based on original sources, from the earliest game to the 19th century. Earlier histories had relied chiefly on the written documents, but here considerable weight is also attached to the philological evidence (i.e. the significance of chess terms in the various languages). Since 1913, Murray's history has been recognized as the standard work of its kind.
Jens Evald Enevoldsen-Elsing (1907-1980) was a Danish chess master born in Copenhagen. Enevoldsen won the Danish Chess Championship five times (1940, 1943, 1947, 1948, and 1960). In 1939 he shared first but lost a playoff, and in 1950 he again shared first but lost a lottery. He took 4th place at the Helsinki 1947 zonal tournament; Eero Böök and Gösta Stoltz shared first place. Enevoldsen played for Denmark eleven times in Chess Olympiads (1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1966, 1970, and 1972). n a 1933 tournament in Copenhagen, the little known Enevoldsen defeats Aron Nimzowitsch, one of the world's leading players, with an overwhelming king's side attack featuring a rare double knight sacrifice.
Condition:
Light rubbing to extremities and hinges, Enevoldsen's book plate to front paste down else a very good copy issued without jacket.
SOLD 2023