Publisher's Synopsis
British Chess is a picture book containing information available nowhere else. It has the first chess man, the first chess board, the first chess picture, the first chess diagram. It has games, diagrams, problems, positions and stories about chess that no other book else has.
We are shocked to learn that an 17 year old British boy was the youngest person ever to be accepted into the British championship and finished third and after that defeated Soviet Grandmaster Kotov. He on his way to gaining the grandmaster title himself, when he died suddenly from appendicitis.
Kenneth Matthews who describes himself as a "second category player" has nevertheless played chess for Cambridge, Combined Universities and two English counties; he has met over the board several of the masters whose achievements are chronicled in this book.
As benefits the author of British Philosophers in this series, Mr. Matthews brings out all the art and profundity of the game, which he calls "the pure form of the Intellectual struggle". He traces the history of chess in Britain and gives the scores of half-a-dozen famous games. So clear and dramatic is the narrative that even the non-player will follow it with fascinated attention.
