Chess Books
The modern game of chess is played between two players on a board with 64 squares. The squares are lined up in an 8 by 8 pattern and is played with 16 pieces assigned to each player. The pieces consist of pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, a queen and a king. Both players take turns moving their pieces, attacking the opponent’s pieces while defending their own. When one player lands on an opponent’s piece, that piece is then “captured” and taken off the board completely. The most important piece is the king, because once the king has been captured, the game is over.
Chess is a very strategic game, requiring players to develop a plan of attack in order to stay a step ahead of his or her opponent and gain an advantage. Mathematicians estimate that there are 10^50 possible unique games of chess. This means that virtually every game of chess that has ever been played is unique, therefore players are faced with situations that they have not seen before. This is when a player’s intuition and tactical skills come into play. A person does not develop his or her skills overnight, however. They master the game by constant practice and experience, while reading chess books about strategies and tactics. Chess books are useful for gaining a better understanding of chess and develop a player’s skills.
There are thousands of published chess books, making chess one of the most extensive sub-categories of literature that exists today. From 1913 to 1949, the number of chess books and other publications has risen from 5,000 to 20,000 publications. According to researchers, so many chess publications have been released every year since 1949, that it is unknown how many chess books and other publications exist today.
The Largest Chess Libraries in the World:
The John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection, located in the Cleveland Public Library is home to one of the most extensive and vast chess libraries in the entire world. The chess book count is over 32,000 and about 6,000 chess periodicals are currently in the library. The library received most of its chess books (about 11,000) from John G. White, himself, after he died. White was not a professional chess player, but he was chess connoisseur and avid book collector.
The Chess & Draughts collection at the Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana in the Netherlands is also one of the largest homes of chess books, with over 30,000 chess books currently contained within it. Most of the donations to this library came from the British Chess Federation (currently known as the English Chess Federation).
The record holder for the largest private collection of chess book publications and other chess literature is grandmaster Lothar Schmid, who lives in Bamberg, Germany. According to reports, Schmid holds about 20,000 items of chess books and memorabilia.