Gambling and Gaming

ix+[blank]+xiii-xv+[blank]+Errata leaf+376 pages with frontispiece and catalog of writers on the game of chess. Octavo (9" x 5 1/2") bound in quarter leather with gilt lettering to spine and marbled edges. (Whyld and Ravillious: 1822:6). First edition. John Cochrane (1798-1878), Scottish Master, did not achieve note as player who had big practical successes. Spending most of his life in India (1824-69), his clashes against top players occurred during 1841-42, while on vacation in London. Cochrane played on equal terms against George Walker (1803-1879), William Davies Evans (1790-1872), and others. He even managed to win a match (6-4) against the Frenchman Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint- Amant (1800-1872), though in a series of games against Howard Staunton (1810-1874) he was defeated convincingly. All his preserved games show a player totally committed to tactics, a player who liked to attack and sacrifice, sometimes beyond reasonable risk. Condition:Rebound in quarter red leather, some pencil… Read More

4 volumes: 1859-1877: xiv+418 pages with frontispiece, diagrams and tables; 1878-1883: 232+[ii ad] pages with frontispiece, diagrams and tables; 1884-1893: viii+482+[vi ad] pages with frontispiece and diagrams; 1894-1900: xviii+391+[iv ad] pages with frontispiece, diagrams and table. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/4") bound in beige cloth with original covers laid on. [Biblioteca van Der Niemeijeriana:3131] First edition.Wilhelm (later William) Steinitz (May 17, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian-American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. Some contemporaries and later writers described him as world champion since 1866, when he won a match against Adolf Anderssen. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894 and also lost a re-match in 1897. Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from competitive play. However, an analysis based on one of these rating systems… Read More

xiii+381 pages with frontispiece and diagrams. Small octavo (7 1/4" x 5") issued in green cloth with gilt lettering to spine and blind stamped covers. (Betts:33-64) First edition.302 problems by both authors, comprising 22 two-movers, 143 three-movers, 91 four-movers, 19 five-movers, 9 others and 18 end-game studies. Solutions appear on pages 305-380. Condition:Corners gently bumped, some occasional pencil marginalia else a very good copy.

vii+280 pages with appendix. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/4") bound in three quarter leather with marbled boards with gilt lettering to spine. (Whyld: 1836-13) 1st edition.Alexander McDonnell (1798-1835) was the son of a Belfast doctor and the strongest player from either Britain or Ireland before the rise of Staunton. In contemporary publications his name was sometimes printed as M'Donnell and he is not to be confused with the Dublin-born Rev G.A. MacDonnell (1830-1899) who had some good results in the 1860s and 1870s and lived until 1899. McDonnell is best known for being the loser of the first known Evans Gambit game (to Capt. William Evans himself) and for his marathon series of matches against the French champion Labourdonnais in 1834. (Tim Harding)Condition:Corners bumped, rebacked with original spine, previous owner's name liberally stamped through out, some occasional light pencil marginalia, front end papers with various notes and writing from previous owners with their names, a previous owners' name… Read More

4 books in 2 volumes: [8]+xvi+255 pages with frontispiece; 205 pages with index and errata. Octavo (8" x 5 3/4) bound in stiff wrappers with labels to spines and deckle edges. This edition not in Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana; however, there are a number of listings for this title in the bibliography (4315 through 4330), listing 16 editions of various dates and publishers. First published in 1528.Baldassare Castiglione, count of Novilara was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author. He was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua. In 1494, at the age of sixteen, Castiglione began his humanist studies in Milan, which would eventually form his future writings. However, in 1499, after the death of his father, Castiglione left his studies and Milan to succeed his father as the head of their noble family. Soon his duties seem to have included representative offices for the Gonzaga court. For the Gonzaga he traveled quite often; during one… Read More

[9]+71 pages with diagrams and index. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine and gilt stripe to front cover in original lain shipping wrapper. Edited by Albrecht Buschke, Richard Cheney and Alain White. Introduction by Alain White. Title page decoration by Vera Bock. Limited to 300 copies. Title page decoration by Vera Back. Errata tipped in. (Betts: 36-7). First edition.A Collection of 120 problems by Russian composers, with notes on the themes, constructions and composers. The problems are arranged in four groups and further sub-divided by theme. Includes an index of composers, sources and keys.
The Overbrook Press was founded in 1934 in Stamford, Connecticut, by Frank Altschul, an investment banker and civic leader with a lifelong interest in book arts and printing. Altschul initially pursued printing as a hobby, experimenting with a small press in his New York apartment. In 1934, he was approached by designer Margaret B. Evans, who had been… Read More

[ii]+256 pages with diagrams and tables. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original wrappers. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:5220) First edition.The fourth meeting of the Deutschen Schachkongresse took place in Hamburg in 1885. It was the fourth master's tournament (Deutschen Schachbund) organized since its inception six year's previously at Leipzig in 1879. As in the previous three editions, the round robin tournament was an international event, pitting German masters against the best of Europe at the time. Germany was represented by its usual field of strong masters, including Wilfried Paulsen, Max Bier, Hermann Von Gottschall, Johannes Von Minckwitz, Fritz Reimann, Emil Schallopp, Arnold Schottlaender, and Siegbert Tarrasch who had won his spot by winning the 1883 Nuremberg Hauptturnier master title. The German masters were joined from Great Britain by Joseph Henry Blackburne, who was the winner of the second Deutschen Schachbund at Berlin in 1881, Henry Edward Bird, Isidor Gunsberg,… Read More

lxxviii+errata+229+[3 ad] pages with diagrams. Duodecimo (6 3/4" x 4 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with black lettering to spine and cover. Introduction by B G Laws and J W Allen. Translated by M Henneberger. (Betts:33-68) Volume six in the A C White Christmas series. First edition.A general introduction on "The Bohemian theory of the Chess problem" and "The work of Josef Pospíšil, by Laws and Allen, is given both in German (translated by M Henneberger), pages vi-xliii, and in English pages xliv-lxxviii. This is followed by 200 of Pospíšil's problems, comprising 19 two-movers, 157 three-movers and 24 four-movers, with solutions (pages 201-229).
Josef Pospíšil was one of the masters of the Bohemian school. In 1887 he published "České úlohy šachové́" which included 320 Bohemian problems and an article about Bohemian composition. John D. Beasley translated this outline of the theory of chess problems by Josef Pospisil - with a selection of problems.In 1907 he compiled the… Read More

288 pages with table and diagrams. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:5223) First edition. This was the Fifth German Chess Congress of the Deutschen Schachbund (DSB - German Chess Federation). It took place in Frankfurt am Main in 1887, the venue being the Assembly Rooms of the Zoological Gardens. German chess benefitted from the rapid expansion of the economy after 1880, the period known as "Gründerzeit" (Founding period) in which many large and soon to be prominent industrial companies were created such as: Krupp, Stinnes, Hoesch and Thyssen. A period of economic prosperity extending until the First World War provided the means for German chess to stage large international tournaments. Using Chessmetrics' data, the Fifth German Chess Congress was the strongest tournament held between 1885 and 1895. With the exceptions of Wilhelm Steinitz (1st) and James Mason (8th), it involved all the ten top players of the time.… Read More

v+402 pages with diagrams. Octavo (9" x6 1/4") bound in full leather with gilt lettering to spine with black labels and original wrappers bound in. Volume IV. (Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:6389) (Hagedorn: 36) First edition. Fiske's Chess Monthly, launched when he was just twenty five years of age, was an outstanding periodical when first published between 1857 and 1861, probably the best in the English language up to that time, and for a long time thereafter; (John Keeble wrote in The British Chess Magazine in November 1931, page 496, "it is safe to say that [Fiske's] magazine remains to this day the most interesting thing of the kind ever issued"), and, 160 years later, it is still an extraordinarily interesting read for chess history and literature devotees. The Problem Department by E B Cook. This was one of the first magazines published in America. It was started in 1857 and lasted until 1861. It was published at the height of Morphy's popularity and presence.Condition: Original… Read More

[16]+30+[2] pages with illustrations and diagram. Small quarto (10 1/2" x 7 1/2") in original boards and paper spine. 50 copies printed. Also appears as an appendix to the reprint of The paradise of dainty deuices by Richard Edwards (1810). (Whyld and Ravilious:1806:6) Reprint of the 1597 edition, variously dated 1806, 1809 and 1810.Slightly modernized extracts from the anonymous 1562 English translation of Questo libro da imparare giocare a scachi by Damiano of Odemira (signed G B), together with "Sacchia ludus" (English translation of the poem by Marco Girolamo Vida, signed W. [G] B) and a final leaf of verse "to the reader" (signed: G B) Some authorities have identified GB as G Blochimo, but this is an error (See "Chess bibliography", Chess Monthly volume 5, 1861 pages 134-6. The true identity of G B is unknown.

432 pages with diagrams. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in period cloth with blind stamped covers with gilt insignia, and gilt decoration and lettering to spine. Title in red and green. Volume II (2). (Betts: 7-1) First edition.The Chess Player's Chronicle, founded by Howard Staunton and extant from 1841–56 and 1859–62, was the world's first successful English-language magazine devoted exclusively to chess. Various unrelated but identically or similarly named publications were published until 1902. The earliest chess magazine in any language was the French Le Palamède, published in 1836-39 and 1842-47. In 1837 George Walker introduced an English-language magazine, the Philidorian, that was devoted to "chess and other scientific games". Only six issues of it were published, and it "expired in May, 1838". The Chess Player's Chronicle became the first successful English-language chess magazine. In 1840 or 1841 Staunton bought the fortnightly magazine The British Miscellany and Chess Player's… Read More

iv+380 pages with illustrations, diagrams, tables, and index. Royal octavo (9 3/4" x 6 1/4") bound in half brown leather with gilt lettering to spine and blue marbled boards. From the library of Dino Ruggieri. Volume VIII (8). (Betts: 7-25). First edition.The Chess Monthly of Great Britain was one of the first to give properly annotated games. The principal editor, Leopold Hoffer, was helped enormously by having J H Zukertort as co-editor until his death in 1888. There were four regular sections: news, annotated games, problems and endgames. In addition, Hoffer carried on a profoundly bitter feud with his one-time benefactor, Steinitz. This publication should not be confused with The Chess Monthly published in the United States which was short lived from 1857-1862 and edited by Fiske and Morphy.Dino Ruggieri was born in, Pigüé a small city in the Buenos Aires province, October 22, 1921. His parents were both Italians, natives of Porto D'Ascoli. In their early years in Argentina, the Ruggieri’s… Read More

(London): Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1876. First Edition. Hardcover. x, 360pp + supplement with 87pp and 23 plates (some of which are in color). Dark brown cloth stamped in blind on the front and the rear and lettered in gold on the spine, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Frontispiece and illustrations. With the bookplate of entomologist Frederick DuCane Godman on the front pastedown endpaper. Some wear to extremities, some annotations in pencil on the margins, one plate loose. A very good- copy. Jessel 1702.; Octavo.

New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1858. 3rd Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. Revised, Enlarged, and Richly Embellished with Engravings." Complete with 267 pages and tissue-protected frontispiece showing the author. 28 full-page diagrams with in-text illustrations throughout. Sound binding with intact hinges. Clean pages; front free endpaper has a faint corner crease. Light cover wear; the gilt cover decoration is in nice shape. The spine is sunned and the lettering is faded but still legible. . Includes information or the game's origin, tables, cues, cushions, balls, rules, techniques, shots, jargon, and playing rooms, as well as sections on billiards humor and Shakespeare as a billiard player. This was the second book on billiards published in the U.S. The Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame notes that "Michael Phelan is considered by many to be the Father of American Billiards as a player, inventor, manufacturer and tireless popularizer of billiards. He played in and won the first billiard… Read More