English Chess Forum

GM Carsten Hansen seems to have a strong contender if one of his reviews in today's Chess Cafe piece is even remotely accurate

Anyone on here have a contender for this somewhat dubious accolade (non-libellous, obviously )??

You must be referring to "In Your Face Chess Novelties," by Andrew Tocher.

http://www.chesscafe.com/hansen/hansen.htm

Looks like one of the books I invented on the Corner when
I was stuck for an idea. Complete with totally unsound games.

This one sounds truly awful.

The worst chess book I personally own is B. Scriven’s "Chess and How to Play It". I knew it was bad when I bought it because it was mentioned in a couple of Edward Winter's columns:
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/wint ... _C.N._3747
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/wint ... _C.N._4088

I bought it for comedy value, and I think I got my money's worth (£2.50 including postage).

Winter offered 'Chess (Basics, Laws and Terms)' by B.K. Chaturvedi.
as a serious contender for the worst ever chess book.

http://www.chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandle ... handID=210

Also a mention about an upside Rook being used as a Queen
in 'An Invitation to Chess' by Irving Chernev And Kenneth Harkness.

(another thread on here goes on about this, they state it's OK).

Matt Mackenzie wrote:GM Carsten Hansen

Who?

Meretricious books are worse than this junk.

Simon Spivack wrote:

Matt Mackenzie wrote:GM Carsten Hansen

Who?

Meretricious books are worse than this junk.

Yeah, Carsten Hansen is only an FM:

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=1400444

I think that was the point you were making by linking to a search restricted to GMs.

Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael de la Maza has to be a contender - I particularly like the chapter dedicated shuffling your feet during a game in order to keep blood flowing to the brain

Any number of books by Eric Schiller.

Simon Spivack wrote:

Matt Mackenzie wrote:GM Carsten Hansen

Who?

Meretricious books are worse than this junk.

You are right, I should have checked that. And your link does indeed show that there are 3 Danish GMs of that name, so an understandable mistake maybe........

Certainly not worthy of such rudeness, for sure

Back on topic, one E Schiller has been unsurprisingly mentioned (he has written *some* decent stuff too, to be fair) Back home, a good pal of his (who *is* a GM) has written some shockers too - not surprisingly given his claim, made with genuine pride, that he could churn out a whole book over a single weekend

And their is the mutual Canadian chum of theirs who "wrote" probably the worst ever chess book with serious pretensions to adequacy. To those of you who haven't read Edward Winter's evisceration of the "Batsford Chess Encyclopaedia" before, by all means go and do so (it is linked to on his "Chess Notes" website) Maybe the elusive Geneva scribe's best effort ever, or certainly a contender - truly magnificent

Has anyone ever seen Edward Winter and Simon Spivack in the same room? I think not.

(Yes, I know Winter is a recluse, which should undoubtedly be the cue for someone to impersonate the great historian on this forum )

With all the chess books in the world, I guess he has to spend much of his time reading and picking out every single mistake.

I found some of his assssments of Eric Schillers works, these are quite amusing to read really.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/schiller.html

Matt Mackenzie wrote:Back on topic, one E Schiller has been unsurprisingly mentioned (he has written *some* decent stuff too, to be fair)

Back home, a good pal of his (who *is* a GM) has written some shockers too - not surprisingly given his claim, made with genuine pride, that he could churn out a whole book over a single weekend.

I think the real culprit in this case was the late Ken Smith and his "Chess Digest" publishing outfit down in Texas. He would offer masters something like $500 to write a book. And these would be written over a weekend, with plenty of white space, and a plethora of howlers and faulty analysis. With snappy titles like "Crush Your Opponent with the Caro-Kann" or "Pulverise Your Opponent with the Philidor" (I concocted these titles on the spur of the moment but you get the idea). Come to think of it, Ken Smith has written some pretty cruddy books himself, with wholesale verbatim plagiarising.

At American tournaments where someone has set up a book stall, one will find any number of middling chess players looking for a book -- not too pricey, not too abstruse -- that will give them a weapon against their opponent in the next round. The Chess Digest books were meant for this market, pandered to it. They're analogous to American junk food, and just as nutritious.

No wonder americans are so rubbish at chess!

Joey Stewart wrote:No wonder americans are so rubbish at chess!

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:

Simon Spivack wrote:

Matt Mackenzie wrote:GM Carsten Hansen

Who?

Meretricious books are worse than this junk.

Yeah, Carsten Hansen is only an FM:

http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=1400444

I think that was the point you were making by linking to a search restricted to GMs.

Perhaps more importantly, Mr Hansen doesn't himself claim to be a GM. Matt presumably just made a false assumption. If only people would never ever be inaccurate. LORD KNOWS what Steve Gibbons must think now!