Does your club have chess books?

[David Blower]

We do. No one ever gets them out and reads them or takes them home.

Also if we were to get rid of the books, where would be a decent place for them to go?

[MJMcCready]

With my old club it was always like that. The thing was that rather function as a library which was regularly improved, it was more like a dumping ground for books no one wanted.

[Arshad Ali]

Also if we were to get rid of the books, where would be a decent place for them to go?

If they're opening books from thirty and forty years back, they can be discarded. If they're books on strong players and their games (Smyslov, Gligoric, etc.), they may have some value. Likewise for some tournament books and endgame books (e.g., the ones by Shereshevsky and Slutsky).

[MJMcCready]

Also if we were to get rid of the books, where would be a decent place for them to go?

If they're opening books from thirty and forty years back, they can be discarded.

I don't know. Some older books on openings do a better job of explaining the positional themes involved than more modern publications, which may only center around recent trends. Sveshnikov's book comes to mind, also I would argue that Shuan Talbot's book on the French still continues to be instructive.

[Francis Fields]

My former chess club used to have an odd collection of books for a pound each; one of them was in Russian, a language I do not speak, though I did learn something from a German book on Maroczy!

[MartinCarpenter]

York do, but the venue means its not really usable anymore anyway Darlington had a few. Chorlton didn't, I think no stable storage for a library there anyway.

Old opening books can be entirely usable if well done and not too judgemental. Certainly interesting if nothing else.

[John Upham]

I would argue that Shuan Talbot's book on the French still continues to be instructive.

I will pass your message to Shaun Taulbut when I see him for a BCM Editorial meeting.

[AustinElliott]

York do, but the venue means its not really usable anymore anyway Darlington had a few. Chorlton didn't, I think no stable storage for a library there anyway.

We have got a club library at Chorlton these days, and even a catalogue (well, a loans book). Indeed, enough stuff now that we need a second bookcase to put it in.

[Stewart Reuben]

Hastings Chess Club has a library, completely separate from the National Chess Library. I understand 3Cs has one and I don't know about Edinburgh. The problem is, for a club that doesn't have its own premises, it is difficult to store, display and allow borrowing of them.

You can give books to the National Chess Library. The problem is that these are not currently displayed and are not readily accessible. You could ask a local public library whether they would accept a small collection. Some major libraries will not accept books unless money is also given for maintenance of the collection.

Geurt Gijssen has about 10,000 books and got rid of all his opening theory ones because he wasn't interested.

[DavidArchibald]

Edinburgh CC does indeed have a library. Good for 19th century books, old numbers of BCM, B.H. Wood's Chess (we also have complete runs of Hoffer's Chess Monthly as well) etc. Being in Edinburgh we're handy for the NLS (Scotland's copyright library, so complete runs of eg The Field) while the public library has some 19th century mags that we don't have. If anyone wants to arrange a visit please get in touch with me at: [email protected]
David Archibald, secretary Edinburgh Chess Club

[IM Jack Rudd]

I got Nunn's book on the French Tarrasch and Taulbut's book on the French at about the same time. I'd say the former was an excellent The Complete...-style book, and the latter an excellent How To Play... book.

[Arshad Ali]

I got Nunn's book on the French Tarrasch and Taulbut's book on the French at about the same time. I'd say the former was an excellent The Complete...-style book, and the latter an excellent How To Play... book.

The former kind date very rapidly while the latter are good for explaining the strategic and positional ideas to lower-rated players. I remember years ago an expert (2000+) who had the Benoni as part of his black repertoire and who kept trouncing my son in the Four Pawn line. But he was using Nunn's rather dated book on the Benoni while I -- evil laughter -- got hold of Vaisser's book on the Four Pawn Benoni, with state-of-the-art and original analysis. My son used it for preparation and the expert duly got trounced (and traumatised).

[David Blower]

Having gone through the entire chess cupboard on Tuesday evening (took the whole night, and about 3 hours to do) I can confirm that our club has the following books: (Displayed first by author(s), and then by title.)

Iakov Neishtedt, Catastrophe in the opening
J Nunn, J Gallagher, Complete Najdorf: Modern lines
Eduard Gufeld, Modern French Tarrasch
A Kostyev, Beginner to expert in 40 lessons
D Johnson, Whike king and red queen (a novel)
TD Harding, Better chess for the average player
J Nunn, M Stean, Sicilian defence: Najdorf variation.
R Keene, World Chess Championship: Kasparov v Anand
W.R. Hartson, Soft Pawn
Anne Sunnucks, Encyclopaedia of chess
P Keres, Practical chess endings
Wade, Miles etc., Book of World Championship: Kasparov v Karpov

[Stewart Reuben]

D Johnson, Whike king and red queen (a novel) I've never heard of that one.
Thanks for the work. That gives me the idea that it would take me at least a week to catalogue my quite small collection.

[Greg Breed]

Hatch End, a small club by all accounts, has over 50 books in it's library and is expanding all the time. Possibly because of the reason mentioned by MJMcCready, but it does get used. I am revisiting one of my favourite books - Chess Secrets by Edward Lasker. A cracking good read as it is more biographical and annecdotal than mere games and variations.