chess-The Oxford Companion to Chess - First Edition by David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld

The game of ches exerts a fascination
unequalled by any comparable activity, and
recent yean have seen an unprecedented
growrh of interest in international cvents
and the personalities involved in them
which is reflected in the growing numbers
of people playing ches in clubs and
schools. rLis book is for playen of all
levels, as well as for those who follow
tourDaments ard ch.mpionship matches
and who wish to know more of the gane,
its terminology, and its history.
The subject has been dogged by legend
and by the repetition of incorrect
information. For this ConTatior the
authors have undettaken considerable
primary research, and some hundreds of
facts appear here correcdy for the lirst time
in a ches book. The oxfonl Conpanion
ro Cles embraces all branches of thc
game, including overthe board play,
correspondence and telegraph ches,
problems, and the vadous unorthodox
forms fairy, four-handed, hexagonal,
three-dimensional ches, for example. The
historical coverage ranges from the earliest
nyths descdbiDg the gamc's invention to
the stager leading to the current world
championship. About 570 biosiaphical
eDtries include all the najor figures of thc
samc's evolution: apart from writers and
composers they hcl:de al1 dre past world
champions and every other player slnce
1872 who achieved the equivaient of at
least one Grandmaster norm: for the lirst
tine ir such a work FIDE's E1o rating
system is applied retrospectively, so that it
n posible to compare the strengths of pasi
ard present players with their
contemloraries. But thcse biographics are
far from drv lisrs of ches facts: many
extraordinary figures arc brought to life in
them. and the reader is informed about
Deschapclles' nelon beds, Philidor's careet
as a Couri comtoser, the Chevalier
D'Eon's transvestism, Whitaker's frauds
(immortalizcd in legal textbooks), and
other curious byways.