Author: Saidy, Anthony (1937- ) inscribed
Year: 1972
Publisher: Chess Digest, Inc
Place: Dallas
Description:
160 pages wight diagrams, bibliography and index. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's aqua cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Inscribed by the author. (Lusis: 355) First American edition.
The Battle of Chess Ideas does for contemporary chess what Reit did almost half a century ago with his celebrated Modern Ideas in Chess and Master of the Chessboard. In the main part of this book, the author critically examines ten great living players and their best games and shows how they illustrate important ideas in chess. In "Botvinnik: the March of Science" and "Larsen: The Vitality of Romance", he reveals the two poles of chess though: the technical and the creative. These opposite tendencies operate within each of the great players and contend in the world of chess. Reshevsky exemplifies the spirit of survival, contrasting with Keres the attacker; Bronstein is the master of invention, Smyslov of balance; Tal is brilliant in psychology, while Petrosian is the arch 'preventionist'; and finally in Boris Spassky and in the American Bobby Fischer one sees tow superb creative players. Here are the great chess players and ideas of today, presented by a writer who has done across-the-board battle with most of them; and here are the most exciting and vital games of modern chess. Saidy's views will be controversial, but they are those of one who knows and loves chess, not from the sidelines but from the thick of the fray. Considered only as a collection of best games, this is the cream. But in its explanation of chess thought, this bids to become a classic.
Condition:
Inscribed on the front end paper. Jacket with some age toning to edges and a few small closed tears, and quarter inch chip at back head edge else a near fine copy in like jacket.
Year: 1972
Publisher: Chess Digest, Inc
Place: Dallas
Description:
160 pages wight diagrams, bibliography and index. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's aqua cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Inscribed by the author. (Lusis: 355) First American edition.
The Battle of Chess Ideas does for contemporary chess what Reit did almost half a century ago with his celebrated Modern Ideas in Chess and Master of the Chessboard. In the main part of this book, the author critically examines ten great living players and their best games and shows how they illustrate important ideas in chess. In "Botvinnik: the March of Science" and "Larsen: The Vitality of Romance", he reveals the two poles of chess though: the technical and the creative. These opposite tendencies operate within each of the great players and contend in the world of chess. Reshevsky exemplifies the spirit of survival, contrasting with Keres the attacker; Bronstein is the master of invention, Smyslov of balance; Tal is brilliant in psychology, while Petrosian is the arch 'preventionist'; and finally in Boris Spassky and in the American Bobby Fischer one sees tow superb creative players. Here are the great chess players and ideas of today, presented by a writer who has done across-the-board battle with most of them; and here are the most exciting and vital games of modern chess. Saidy's views will be controversial, but they are those of one who knows and loves chess, not from the sidelines but from the thick of the fray. Considered only as a collection of best games, this is the cream. But in its explanation of chess thought, this bids to become a classic.
Condition:
Inscribed on the front end paper. Jacket with some age toning to edges and a few small closed tears, and quarter inch chip at back head edge else a near fine copy in like jacket.