Author: Philip Stamma (1715-1770?) edited by William Lewis
Year: 1819
Publisher: T & J Allman
Place: London
Description:
xii+337 pages with illustrations and colored diagrams. Octavo ((8" x 5 1/2") bound quarter green boards with label to spine over stiff paper boards. Notes and remarks by William Lewis, author of Oriental chess. Translation of Stamma's Essai sur le jeu des echecs (1737). First published in English 1818. (Whyld & Ravilious: 1819:13) Second edition.
Provenance Birmingham Chess Club with their stamp on title.
Philip Stamma, a native of Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, later resident of England and France, was a chess master and a pioneer of modern chess. His reputation rests largely on his authorship of the early chess book Essai sur le jeu des echecs published 1737 in France (English translation: The Noble Game Of Chess 1745). This book brought the Middle Eastern concept of the endgame to the attention of Europe and helped revive European interest in the study of the endgame. Stamma was a regular at Slaughter's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane (London), a center of 18th century English chess, and was considered one of England's strongest players. He was defeated quite handily by Philidor in a famous match in 1747, which marked the beginning of Philidor's rise to fame
Condition:
Corners chipped, new spine and spine label, some internal foxing, previous owner's name on title, book plate label on front paste down, pencil notation to front end paper with marginalia to text, previous owner's neat signature on title, else a good copy of a scarce item.