The Fireside Book of Chess

by Irving Chernev, Fred Reinfeld, Sam Sloan

The Fireside Book of Chess is the World's Greatest Collection of stories, cartoons and amuning anecdotes about the game of chess. It also has curious and interesting chess games such as the game where the Champion of France lost in four moves, which is the quickest loss in chess history by a master. A selection of games converted into Algebraic Notation is in the back pages of this book. This is not a how-to manual for beginners, nor is it a strategy and tactics book for the more advanced player. This is a collections of memories, anecdotes, puzzles, lists and other trivia (and not so trivial) bits about chess. This is of interest to those who have a deep abiding passion for chess, as well as for those who only dabble in it occasionally. Both editors have written other books on chess; both Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld have written some of the better books on learning chess separately, and together they also collaborated on a book showing strategy and skills development toward winning at chess. This book contains stories and articles, collected from various publications such as the New Yorker and other newspapers and magazines. Included are also comics from the New Yorker, the Saturday Review of Literature, the New York Herald and other sources. Here are fake histories of the game, tongue-in-cheek stories, poignant memories and more.

Genres: Chess, Games

400 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1966

Reviews

[Nathan Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun book, published decades ago - so there is no mention of modern-day players like Kasparov, Carlsen etc.... However, the real value of The Fireside Book of Chess lies not in instructional quality, but rather in the prose. I found Part One to be the best, being a collection of charmingly-written short stories about the game. Another section called "Odd But True" contains interesting snippets of trivia. The rest of the book mostly consists of famous games, which can be found in many other books, but are still nice inclusions. Be aware that moves are given in the archaic descriptive form of notation (i.e. "P-K4", instead of "e4").

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the few books about chess that is more fun than playing chess. It's full of amusing stories and anecdotes about chess and chess players, with many other features--problems, games, and so on. There's a newer edition that I must acquire someday, but this is the one I remember as magic. It was written by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld, my #1 and #2 favorite chess writers.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it wasnt just a book of playable classic chess games, but a book for people that truly love chess and the mystery and the art the surround the game..I found the book very appealing and fun to read if you like chess, I would highly recommend this book!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully fun book with lots of interesting facts and details about chess, as well as information on the playing of the game.

[bluetyson]

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