3 must read chess books for those interested in Chess

Books and Essays

As old and as famous throughout the world as the game of chess can be there are a lot of books, essays and stories written on the subject. It is even highly unbelievable how a game of war can inspire such an art as the many literary works on it. Various topics, genres and cultures have been entwined with the history of chess in real life as well as in the fictional fruits of the minds of certain authors. Chess appears in criminal as well as in romantic stories. It can prove to be the "je ne sais quoi" of a love affair or a battlefield. There are so many works on the subject that it is even hard to chose from them our favourites. However, there are some that will most definitely catch your eye if you are up for an adventure through the black and white chessboard.

The Morals of Chess

There is one historical and extremely important work on the subject of chess that everyone who is interested in the game has heard of and read about. It is called "The Morals of Chess" (1779) and is written by none other but Benjamin Franklin. In this essay Franklin explains that this is not just some idle, boring way to pass oneÕs leisure. He underlines several important parts of the soul of this game: foresight, circumspection and caution. He puts into words the feeling one experiences while playing chess: the stress, the fear, the way one thinks about all the possible moves, attacks and defences, misdirection and traps they can perform. With this essay Benjamin Franklin has definitely changed several way of understanding both chess and life. It is an experience that should not be missed, especially if you're interested in the Game.

The Defence

Of course, literature has never been only about statements, news or annotations. Actually, a lot of the literary works have mostly been fictional. This is why when discussing books we should never miss out on the best of the fictional genres. For chess, according to many lovers of the game, one of these books is The Defence by Vladimir Nabokov. It is a Russian novel, published in 1930 while the author has been in Berlin. Nabokov writes about the story of Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin. His life, which has been absolutely blank and idle before he found out about chess. His life while he achieves marvellous results in the field and even becomes a Grandmaster. His life as he becomes insane from the unnatural way through which he "enjoys" chess. His life as heÕs finally lost all connections to the real world and his life at its tragic end. This is a really good book about life as a whole, filled with all the passion, obsessions and manias of a faint soul.

My 60 Memorable Games

A key factor in chess literature are the historical books and what could be more historical than an entire work based on matches? This is what My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer is. It is not a boring compilation of his wins, not at all. In the matter of fact, this is one of the very few player anthologies that consist of not only wins, but also draws and even losses. There are some interesting trivia facts about the book. For example, a version with algebraic notation from 1995 has been officially denounced by Fischer himself because of the too many crucial changes made to his original text from 1969.