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

PREFACE
No game has surpassed chess in the extent to which it has commanded a
following in all countdes of the known world for mary centuncs. One of the
oldest games, it has a history spanning 1,400 years;in one or other of its vadous
fomsit has been popular for most ofthis time, and has offered both inspiiatjon
and solace to anists, writers, and scientists. Such is the subtlety of the gam() that
no one has been able to determine whether it is an art, a scierce, a sport, or a
combination of them all-
This book embraces all branches of chess including its history and gives
remmmended books for further reading. All terms commonly used by players
are e)(plained, about 5?0 biographies are given, and there are entries for about
650 names representing some 700 openings or variations. Composition terms
provide the groundwork for an understanding ot that a , but or y a handful of
the many problem themes are given. The strategy of moderr chess is djscussed
and tie entry for shatranj jncludes the only extant descriptior of the old game's
strategy. More than 220 games and more than 190 compositioN are included.
Altlough instructionis not ourpurpose, a newcomer could learn to play and to
follow the gamg by referring to laws, notation, and conventional symbols.
Thenumbers given in the entries foropenings referto Appendix I in which the
moves defining each opening are to be found. This appendix may also be used to
discoverthe rame ofan openirg ifthe moves are krown, a facility not previously
available. The terms most commonly used from six languages are given \rith
English translations in Appendix ll as an aid to understanding foreign
The Elo rating system, adopted by FIDE, is a universally accepted measureof
performance which we have applied retrospectively. Thus we have identilied
nearly2,000 norms from 1872 to 1982 and, forthefi$ttime, it ispossible for the
playing strength of past and prescnt players to be compared with that of their
contemporades. These ronns arc equivalent ir rating terms 1o the GM norm as
defined by FIDE in 1982, but we have rot, Iike FIDE, limited such norms 1o
international tournaments in which each competitor has played at least nine
games. Except for team evenls and women's tournaments, every over the_board
tourrament score given in this book indicates the equivalent of a GM norm.
These scores are given in terms ofwins (+), draws (:), and losses ( ).whenan
all'play all tournament is unaccompaniedby a score. then a GM norm level\Ias
The biographies include every player who has achieved at least one such norm
before the mid-1960s and every playerwho has achieved atleast two suchnorms
after this date. The absence of a norm in a biography indicates that none wds
made by that person in an all play_all event, but not all norms are given for a
player who has made more than six. (At leasr a dozen players have made more
than thirty.)