Author: Gossip, G[eorge] H[atfield] D[ingley] (1840-1907)
Year: 1889
Publisher: Dick & Fitzgerald
Place: New York
Description:
156+[iv ad] pages. Duodecimo (6 1/2" x 5") bound in original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering on spine and cover. (Betts: 10-43) First American edition.
George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was a minor American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments. Gossip was also a noted writer. His treatise The Chess-Player's Manual—A Complete Guide to Chess, a 900-page tome published in 1874 after several years of work, was harshly received by the critics, largely because he had included a number of informal skittles games that he had (atypically) won against stronger players. As a result, Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. However, his 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion, wrote that the 1888 edition of The Chess-Player's Manual was one of the best available books on the game. Thanks in part to a 122-page appendix by S. Lipschütz, it became one of the standard opening works of the time.
Contains analysis of 35 openings, four illustrative games, analysis of eleven endgames and an addenda of recent opening analysis. Gossip made his living primarily as a journalist, author, and translator. He wrote for publications in England, France, Australia, and the United States. At various times he resided in each of those countries, as well as in Germany and Canada. Chess writers have often mocked Gossip's play, calling him a "grandpatzer" and the like. However, Kenneth Whyld, one of his previous critics, suggests that history may have judged him unfairly.
Description:
Corners bumped, points rubbed, spine ends rubbed. Over all a very good copy issued without dust jacket.
SOLD 2023