Author: William Henry Watts (1878-1941) editor; annotated by Alexander Alekhine
Year: 1924
Publisher: Printing Craft Ltd
Place: London
Description:
68+[4 ad] pages with photographs of each of the players, diagrams, tables and index. Octavo (9" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with blind stamped ruled edges in original jacket. Annotations by A Alekhine. An account of the tournament by G A Thomas. (Betts: 25-65; Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:5344) First edition.
In September of 1922, the organizers of the Hastings chess congress decided to hold a masters tournament which would pit two English masters against four of the best from the European continent. The participants of the double round robin were Alexander Alekhine, Efim Bogoljubov, Akiba Rubinstein, Siegbert Tarrasch, George Alan Thomas, and Frederick Yates. Alekhine managed to edge out superstar Rubinstein by half a point in the final, winning his most famous game ever against long time rival Bogoljubov, whereas Rubinstein struggled for over a hundred moves against Thomas only to come up short at the end. The 30 games are fully annotated by Alekhine, with some notes from The Field column added. A distant third and fourth was a tie, Bogoljubow and Thomas with 4 1/2 points. Fifth was the aging Tarrasch with 4 and Yates sixth with 2 1/2.
Condition:
Book plate to front pastedown, pervious owner's name to front end paper, corners gently bumped, front inner hinge cracked, stain at heal end pages else about very good lacking jacket.