Young Authors

[MJMcCready]

Hi, I just learnt that GM Daniel Naroditstky wrote Mastering Positional Chess when he was only 14. Is that a record in terms of a titled player producing literature at the youngest age? Have we had someone publish anything when they were younger than that?

[Richard Thursby]

See https://www.indiatvnews.com/amp/sports/ ... -30-773261 and https://indiabookofrecords.in/youngest- ... -on-chess/ regarding https://notionpress.com/read/move-n-mate

13 year old (just, still) published Move n Mate, 500 checkmate in one combinations. Not sure how obtainable it is for most forumites.

[MJMcCready]

That is young indeed to be delivering publications.

[Geoff Chandler]

The Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World: The Chess Adventures of Abhimanyu Mishra Aged 12 years, 4 months. https://www.amazon.co.uk/youngest-grand ... B0BHJKXPB7

[John Upham]

To put the above into context let us not forget that Ray Keene during the gap between Dulwich College and Cambridge Ray (aged 18) wrote his first (and one of his best) book : Flank Openings :

5098501._SY475_.jpg

I would argue that in 1966 this would have been far more of an achievement that the examples cited above despite Ray being older.

(We cannot be sure of the extent of ghost writing for the previously cited examples).

These days use of ChessBase makes authoring chess books many times easier than it would have been using a Rolodex or some kind of card index system (which is what I used in the 1970s and 1980s).

You probably didn't expect me to extoll the virtues of Ray but I will always give credit where credit is due.

[MJMcCready]

The Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World: The Chess Adventures of Abhimanyu Mishra Aged 12 years, 4 months. https://www.amazon.co.uk/youngest-grand ... B0BHJKXPB7

Are we sure he actually wrote it?

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi MJM,

It has his name on the author and the advert give a passage; " I had won the game. I went out and saw Bapu waiting for me. I rushed to him and gave him a big hug. I had become the youngest Grandmaster in the entire world. I had beaten a nineteen-year-old world record. "

I remember Fred Reinfeld had a book out on child prodigies, Morphy, Capablanca, Reshevsky and Fischer. These days it would run into three volumes and have the catchy title 'Masters Before Puberty.'

[MJMcCready]

I'm not sure that would be the best selling point in today's world!

[MJMcCready]

To put the above into context let us not forget that Ray Keene during the gap between Dulwich College and Cambridge Ray (aged 18) wrote his first (and one of his best) book : Flank Openings :

Would that make Keene the first teenager to write a book on chess?


5098501._SY475_.jpg


I would argue that in 1966 this would have been far more of an achievement that the examples cited above despite Ray being older.

(We cannot be sure of the extent of ghost writing for the previously cited examples).

These days use of ChessBase makes authoring chess books many times easier than it would have been using a Rolodex or some kind of card index system (which is what I used in the 1970s and 1980s).

You probably didn't expect me to extoll the virtues of Ray but I will always give credit where credit is due.

[John Townsend]

There is a section about the youngest chess writers and authors in Edward Winter's article Chess Records:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/records.html

These include, for instance, not only Naroditsky - in a C.N. item 14 or 15 years ago ... - but also Murray Chandler.

There are also references to the youngest person to be the subject of a chess book.

(Note that this article is no longer updated, so it takes no account of any publications since the cut-off date of 21 November 2020).

[John Upham]

.. - but also Murray Chandler.

Murray wrote:

white pawn in europe001_small.jpg

when fifteen years old.

[MJMcCready]

Good find. Unaware of that.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

You would have thought the interlinking of databases and the way in which searches can be done now, that it might be trivial to extract a list of teenaged authors of chess books.

Be aware that some will have been written while a teenager and published aged 20 (could also define the limit as under 18).

Lovely cover artwork for the Chandler book. Who is the artist there? Technically an extended tournament report might be seen as not in the same league as a theoretical opening tome.

You could also look for writings by young chess players at article level, which would expand the scope somewhat.

[John Upham]

You could also look for writings by young chess players at article level, which would expand the scope somewhat.

James and myself invited Theo Slade to write for BCM when were both working for BCM.

Theo was twelve when he wrote his first BCM article. Now a resident of Orlando, Florida and doing very well for himself.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

See https://www.indiatvnews.com/amp/sports/ ... -30-773261 and https://indiabookofrecords.in/youngest- ... -on-chess/ regarding https://notionpress.com/read/move-n-mate

13 year old (just, still) published Move n Mate, 500 checkmate in one combinations. Not sure how obtainable it is for most forumites.

I'm in India at the moment and could probably get hold of this book via Amazon if anyone is desperate to have a copy.