While Batsford, Everyman and Gambit battle it out for the title of best publisher of opening and instructional books, the Jefferson, North Carolina, based McFarland & Company is the undisputed king when it comes to publishing works on chess history. One only has to recall works on Alekhine, Capablanca and Marshall (to mention just three) to realize the contribution that McFarland has made. Two new offerings will only add to its growing reputation.

Almost ten years ago one of Wilhelm Steinitz’s kinsman, Kurt Landsberger, did him great justice by writing the book WILHELM STEINITZ, CHESS CHAMPION. This biography became the definitive word on the late American Chess Champion, and it seemed there would be little to add to this 487-page work. Landsberger felt otherwise and the result is THE STEINITZ PAPERS.

THE STEINITZ PAPERS, subtitled Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion, is more than just letters written by Steinitz during different times of his life, including the tragic death of his daughter and during his stay in a mental institution in Moscow. These alone would make the book fascinating reading, but equally interesting are the letters to Steinitz where such well-known figures as Henry Nelson Pillsbury and Walter Penn Shipley and Emanuel Lasker are represented.

This book offers a wealth of material about American chess history that is made possible by Landsberger's efforts and the contributions of many chess collectors and scholars. People like the late Arthur Buschke, Dale Brandreth, and especially the Steinitz collector, Jeff Kramer, helped to make this book something very special. For example, where else do you learn that the great Morphy specialist David Lawson was really named Charles Whipple, or that in this age of drug testing in chess, Louis Paulsen would have probably just laughed at the examiners. In the back of the book, in a special section called biographical notes, there are short bios on individuals mentioned and, under Paulsen, it notes that he not only didn’t drink spirits but also declined coffee and tea. Only water passed through his lips. He was a non-smoker, over one hundred years ahead of his time.

The stories of how Landsberger came by his material makes for fascinating, if sometimes sad reading. The Hungarian historian Walter Foldeak mentions how he came to possess two Steinitz letters. In the spring of 1944, a Hungarian, Jew Ernst Bokor, who was a friend of Foldeak’s, bequeathed his chess memorabilia to Foldeak in the event something happened to him. It did.

THE STEINITZ PAPERS is primarily a book to be read, but there is chess in it. All the games of the Schiffers-Steinitz match are presented with annotations by Steinitz and Andy Soltis.

Highly Recommended.

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