Looks at Books / A Chess Biography Remembering CAPABLANCA & BLACKBURNE
Two legendary players get the McFarland treatment By JOHN HARTMANN
M
ost of the biggest publishing houses leave chess to their smaller brethren, with a few notable exceptions. Batsford and its valuable backlist have changed hands a few times, now resting
with Pavilion Books out of London. US Chess’ Official Rules of Chess was for many years published by McKay, and is now in its sixth edition with McKay’s successor, Random House. There is an American house that is publishing some
very interesting studies of chess history as part of its wide and varied list, and chances are, unless you work in the industry, that you’ve never heard of them. Until now, that is. McFarland & Company is an independent
publisher from North Carolina. Focused on the library market, they specialize in fields like military history, baseball and popular culture. Somewhere along the way they added chess to their purview, and today McFarland puts out more scholarly chess books than any other publisher. Some of these titles—compilations of hard-to-find
crosstables, bibliographies, etc.—are of limited popular interest, but the biographical works have potential cross-over appeal. I gave the 2014 McFarland release of Andy Soltis’ Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Champion a favorable review in these pages (May 2014), and the book went on to win Book of the Year prize awarded by the Chess Journalists of America. Four McFarland chess biographies have crossed
my desk in recent months. Two—Ignaz Kolisch: The Life and Chess Career by Fabrizio Zavatarelli and Samuel Lipschütz: A Life in Chess by Stephen Davies— are first-rate works on fine but lesser-known players. Zavatarelli’s book in particular is worth a look. The tale of Kolisch’s rise to fame and fortune, made possible in part through his chess contacts, is dramat- ically told. Of possibly greater interest are the titles on José
economy and politics. The first chapter, for example, describes the history of Cuban chess, showing how the sugar boom allowed aficionados to bring players like Morphy, Steinitz, Blackburne and Chigorin to the island. It also gives face and personality to many of Capablanca’s early supporters and rivals. There is much that is familiar in Sanchez’s account.
The general outlines of Capablanca’s life are well known and there are no shocking revelations to be found here. Still, I suspect that even the most ardent Capa fan will learn something new from Sanchez’s very readable book. Of particular, if morbid, interest is the discussion of Capablanca’s high blood pressure and health problems, the deleterious effects of which Sanchez locates much earlier in Capablanca’s career than commonly thought. There are 192 competently annotated games in
Sánchez, Miguel A. José Raúl Capablanca: A Chess Biography. McFarland: 2015. ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-7864-7004-4. 568 pages. Library binding.
(Available from
uscfsales.com, catalog number BO016MF, $54.95)
José Raúl Capablanca: A Chess Biography. Because Sanchez emphasizes biography over chess, contex- tualizing Capablanca’s chess career within his life more broadly, this number feels appropriate. Contrast it with the 1,184 games and 55 compositions in Tim Harding’s Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography, and you begin to get a sense of a stark difference in authorial attitude towards the biographical task. Blackburne was the best British player before the
rise of Miles, Short and Adams in the late 20th century. He was a great popularizer of the game and one of its first professionals, making annual exhi - bition tours through the “provinces” for nearly 60 years (1861-1921) and specializing in simultaneous blindfold exhibitions for 50 of them. Most of Harding’s work has gone into excavating
Harding, Tim. Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography. McFarland: 2015. ISBN: 978-0-7864-7473-8. 592 pages. Library binding.
Raúl Capablanca and Joseph Henry Blackburne. The legendary Capablanca was the third official world champion, holding the title from 1921-1927, and Blackburne was one of the top tournament players of the later 19th century. Both books bear an identical subtitle— “A Chess Biography”—but as we shall see, it reads rather differently depending on the author. In José Raúl Capablanca: A Chess Biography, Miguel A. Sanchez paints his portrait of Capablanca against a broad backdrop of time and country,
14 April 2016 | Chess Life
(Available from
uscfsales.com, catalog number BO017MF, $74.95)
the details of Blackburne’s chess career. He has recovered unknown games, corrected errors in published games, and created thorough travelogues
for his tours and travels. Many facts from his family life are documented and dozens of pictures are provided, but make no mistake—this is a chess biography.
Harding’s book feels definitive. Of course new material will continue
to be discovered, but so much work went into its writing, so much material is presented, that it almost overwhelms the general reader. Historians will find Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography to be an indispensable resource, but casual fans may want to start with the chapter on Blackburne in Harding’s more approachable Eminent Victorian Chess Players.
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