New Sultan Khan book

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Well, I say new but maybe this is the first-ever book on Sultan Khan. Not out until July 2026, but previewed here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-life- ... ultan-khan

Written by his eldest son and one of his granddaughters.

The book is titled 'Endgame of Empire: Sultan Khan, Asia's First Grandmaster':

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FNGVXSCW

https://fordhampress.com/endgame-of-emp ... 13108.html

EDIT: I should do the authors the courtesy of naming them!

Ather Sultan (Sultan Khan's son) and Atiyab Sultan (Sultan Khan's granddaughter)

[Matt Mackenzie]

It is not the first, R N Coles wrote a book about him several decades ago.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

There's also Danny King's book, "Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sultan-Khan-Se ... 9056918745

Which Sultan Khan's granddaughter was not impressed with:
https://www.chess.com/blog/atiyabsultan ... ers-review

[Pete Morriss]

Well, I say new but maybe this is the first-ever book on Sultan Khan. Not out until July 2026, but previewed here:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-life- ... ultan-khan

Unfortunately, this preview says that in the 1933 Folkestone Olympiad, Sultan Khan played on board 1 for India. Surely, he was playing for Great Britain? One hopes that the book is more accurate.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There's also Danny King's book, "Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sultan-Khan-Se ... 9056918745

Which Sultan Khan's granddaughter was not impressed with:
https://www.chess.com/blog/atiyabsultan ... ers-review

"Not impressed" is an understatement. A searing response.

The above critique was sent to the publisher, New in Chess, in 2020. In response, New in Chess initially committed to removing factual errors from the book and editing the incorrect title, and later in 2023, said that they would stop selling the book. Sultan Khan's family welcome this decision and look forward to see it actioned.

EDIT: For the sake of clarity, the quote I give above is about Daniel King's book (Sultan Khan The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire, Alkmaar, 2020).

[Matt Mackenzie]

The idea that SK was illiterate, and a lowly servant/slave, has been widely claimed and was from the 1930s - tbf King did not invent it.

It remains a blemish on FIDE that they did not even bother to check if he was still alive before awarding their first titles in 1950.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I should get all three books and compare them.

For this one, looking at the contents pages (a tab on the Fordham Press page), and over 20 pages of notes and 10 pages of bibliography, it looks like it will have the necessary scholarly apparatus. The main text is 145 pages, with about 27 pages for an appendix of 6 games.

This is the contents page:

Prologue: Black and White | vii

A Son Remembers | xi

Introduction: Threading the Needle | 1

PART I. EARLY MOVES: FAITH AND FINDING ONESELF

1. Seeking Serenity | 13

2. Family Gambit | 20

3. O Fortuna! | 28

4. Victory on Home Turf | 38

PART II. WINNING MOVES: THE EMERGENCE OF A MASTER

5. Empire’s Worst Knight-mare | 51

6. Continental Drift | 65

7. The Game of the Year | 79

8. The Outsider | 87

9. Starry Night | 100

PART III. SILENT MOVES: A LEGACY UNFOLDS

10. The Return of a Champion | 115

11. Chess and Chance | 129

12. The Aftergame: Picking Up the Pieces | 134

Epilogue: Stepping into Color | 141

Acknowledgments | 145

Appendix: Sultan Khan’s Greatest Games
Annotated by GM Sam Shankland
Sultan Khan—José Raúl Capablanca, Hastings, 1930 | 149
Victor Ivanovich Soultanbeieff—Sultan Khan, Liege, 1930 | 154
Sultan Khan—Frank Marshall, Liege, 1930 | 158
Sultan Khan—Akiba Rubinstein, Prague, 1931 | 161
Sultan Khan—Salo Flohr, London, 1932 | 166
Savielly Tartakower—Sultan Khan, Semmering, 1931 | 171

Notes | 177

Bibliography | 199

Index | 211

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Bit more. From Edward Winter's page:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ext ... nkhan.html

The R.N. Coles book was 1965 (1st edition) with an expanded edition in 1977.

[That is quite a few decades ago! Some people may be thinking of the 2009 reprint of the R.N. Coles book that Sam Sloan brought out with an introduction added by Sloan.]

There is also a 2003 book flagged up by Winter, a "254-page work, Kometa Sultan-Khana by A. Matsukevich (Moscow, 2003)."

Not being a Cyrillic reader or speaker myself, would anyone know if that work is mostly about Sultan Khan's chess or also biographical in nature?

[Roger de Coverly]

I should get all three books and compare them.

The Coles book was first published in 1965 or 1966 so much closer in time to the events described than the later pair.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I should get all three books and compare them.

The Coles book was first published in 1965 or 1966 so much closer in time to the events described than the later pair.

From the 2009 reprint (Amazon preview) it states:

First Edition published 1965 as BCM Quarterly No. 10
Expanded Second Edition revised, enlarged and reset, published in 1977.

The Amazon preview also shows that the Sam Sloan introduction and this reprint was dated 2015.

Am slightly confused now as to why Amazon claim 2009, unless that is an error, or Sloan redid the reprint in 2015?

Anyway, this is all by-the-by. Despite what Roger says about about the Coles book being much closer in time to the life and times of Sultan Khan, it only contains a short biographical note of 4-and-a-bit pages. The bulk of the 220-page book is the chess games, though apparently they contain biographical information and R.N. Coles did meet and came into contact with Sultan Khan, so that is something I had not fully appreciated before.

What is clear is that this book from Ather Sultan (Sultan Khan's eldest son) and Atiyab Sultan (Sultan Khan's granddaughter) will be required reading, will add much more to what we know (drawing on family sources) and will add new and valuable perspectives. It will be interesting to see how they have handled those family sources (Sultan Khan lived from 1903 to 1966, dying aged 62-63, I am unsure how old his eldest son Ather Sultan was at that point).

An article from 2020 from Ather Sultan and Atiyab Sultan:

https://www.dawn.com/news/1557393

Also, from the Wikipedia article on Sultan Khan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Kh ... ss_player)

Ather Sultan, his eldest son, recalled that he would not coach his children at chess, telling them that they should do something more useful with their lives. (sourced to Hooper and Whyld, 1992)

[John Townsend]

Edward Winter's article (mentioned by Christopher above) also refers to a further book: The Indian Chessmaster Malik Mir Sultan Khan by Ulrich Geilmann (Eltmann, 2018).

[John Townsend]

Here is another link for information:

https://www.dawn.com/news/1557393/ches ... th-of-khan

[Gerard Killoran]

A couple of photographs not in either this or Daniel King's book.

Times of India, Sunday 21 January 1934 - p.8.png (1.47 MiB) Viewed 315 times

Times of India Sunday, 30 April 1939 Page 64.png (749.54 KiB) Viewed 315 times

[Gerard Killoran]

And here's a better copy of a photo of the same scene above, previously available on Mr. Winter's site.

Times of India Tuesday, 16 January 1934 Page 5.png (1022.19 KiB) Viewed 313 times

[JustinHorton]

The idea that SK was illiterate, and a lowly servant/slave, has been widely claimed and was from the 1930s - tbf King did not invent it..

However, it was surely debunked a long time before he wrote