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The Fireside Book of Chess
by Irving Chernev, Fred Reinfeld
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) (1966-06)
ISBN: 0671212214
EAN: 9780671212216
Dewey Decimal #: 794.1
Paperback
SKU: 20187
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: Paperback. Small tears on bottom of spine. Front cover curls a little. One front fly-leave page has a chess board drawn on it. All other pages are clean and unmarked.
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Customer Reviews
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One of the best chess books ever!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-01-21
This book has been around for a long time and it has been about 50 years since I first bought it. It contains many wonderful games played by great chess masters over a long period of time. It starts off with some short stories about chess. The games show how brilliant some of our chess masters were long before the likes of Bobby Fisher. This book is a must have in any chess lover's library. It is truly timeless!
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A delight for the chess lover
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-02-04
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Don't read this book to learn or improve your game (although that will happen at least to some degree anyways). Read it because you are a chess lover and you want to read some marvelous stories and anecdotes, all the more delighful because of their age (this is a 1949 book). A small third of the book is stories; a larger third is oddities, problems, studies, etc; and the largest third (really about half the book) is a collection of games which were chosen not so much for their teaching value as for their revealing certain facets of the game.
To experience the charm and nostalgia of this book, search around for a hard-cover original (I got one for about five dollars) and eschew the trade paperback reissues. The hard-cover has a nice substantial "bulk" and is a pleasure to use, all the more so with a worn copy that has been enjoyed by many other chess fans.
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A cozy book of chess
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-10-12
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a chess book of a different sort - it is not a how-to manual for beginners, nor is it a strategy and tactics book for the more advanced player. This is just what Fireside books are meant to be - collections of memories, anecdotes, puzzles, lists and other trivia (and not so trivial) bits about chess. This is of interest to those who have a deep abiding passion for chess, as well as for those who only dabble in it occasionally. Both editors have written other books on chess; both Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld have written some of the better books on learning chess separately, and together they also collaborated on a book showing strategy and skills development toward winning at chess.
This book is divided into three main sections. The first section contains stories and articles, collected from various publications such as the New Yorker and other newspapers and magazines. Included are also comics from the New Yorker, the Saturday Review of Literature, the New York Herald and other sources. Here are fake histories of the game, tongue-in-cheek stories, poignant memories and more. From the 'Capsule History of the Game' by Chielamangus, we get this snippet:
'The next great figure was Wilhelm Steinitz; a very deep player - also wide, though short. He held the world's championship for twenty-six years, and was therefore considered by his rivals to be very obstinate and pig-headed. Dr. Lasker then held the championship for another twenty-six years. Critics explained that this was because he made weak moves. This was psychology. Lasker thus became known as the apostle of common sense.'
The second section is entitled 'The Magic of Chess'. The entry 'Odd But True' includes a feast of trivia items. How can a game be won (or lost) in two moves? Was there really a master-level game that concluded in four moves? What was the longest master-level game, in number of moves? Many people through history have played through correspondence; given the amount of time permitted between moves, one would not expect too many mistakes, but the shortest of these types of games concluded in a mere six moves. There was also a book published once in Germany with the title, 'Advice to Spectators at Chess Tournaments'. All the pages were blank save one, which had but two words on it - 'Halt Maul!'
The third section is a collection of classic games and strategies, which includes a lot games more interesting for the circumstances surrounding them as much as for the play that takes place. These include miniatures (short games), blindfolded games, and even 'the perfect game'. This has a strange quality about it in chess - according to Chernev and Reinfeld, the perfect game is not one in which all the moves are 'perfect': 'A game in which neither side has made a mistake does not add up to perfection; in such games we find only a sterile dullness which lacks every memorable feature.'
Chernev and Reinfeld had the reputation for being able to speak for hours on end about chess without notes or books, much in the way many people will talk about sports, movies, politics or other areas. They write with wit and skill (much like the way they play the game), and have the hope that through their writing their love of the game is contagious. Judging from this book, one of my earliest books on chess, they are indeed.
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Very good for the pre-Soviet domination.
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-02-14
6 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
Yes, this book is good; and is a former incarnation of the Chess Companion. Therefore it is given 4 stars, as 3 1/2 for the Chess Companion. The games are good, even not as high standard as the games in the following decades later. The chess endings are very helpful. Many chess themes are very clear. But the story part is not great if you have high expectation. At least they are localized to one half of the book, imagine if those stories were inter-leaving with the real chess. I still don't know how to organinze those stories in a book. Like their current leading part of the book causes some distraction to the good chess to follow; however, if they were in the last half, then we or at least I would expect more exciting (and real-life) chess stories. I just got some idea. The book has two front covers and two halves and one is upside-down of other. To read from one end, it's the real chess games; turn it up-side down, and read from the back, it's the fairy tale chess. Let the publisher worry about how to print it. We are just the chess audience... ;-)
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Great Book
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-02-23
4 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a unique chess book that has something for everyone. It has amusing and intersting stories that apply to people who have litereary interests as well as chess interests and it has a striong theme throufghout that although chess is wonderful, it is really secondary to life. It also has fascinating stats, stories, and great game collections and puzzles to solve. Really it is a perfect chess book to go over and read by the fireside on a cold night or any night for that matter. Buy it or pick it up at a library, and if you love chess, you will love this book..
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