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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Chess Mail Ltd.
Last modified:
16 June 2010
My next book, Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1987: A History, is partly based on my some sections of my doctoral
thesis, together with additional research. As the book presents a detailed picture of many aspects of nineteenth century chess life, it should be of considerable interest even to non-British readers and to people who do not play by correspondence.
McFarland, the US-based leading publisher of chess histories and biographies, are now actively engaged in editing the book and have posted a page where you can place an advance order with them. It should be in print by late 2010. They say it will be a large softback (approx 7x10 inch page format) at $49.95. Editing is at an advanced stage but the number of pages cannot be known until after typesetting. It will probably be quite a substantial volume. The ISBN (for ordering through bookshops) will be 978-0-7864-4553-0.
Here is the Table of Contents.
1. Capital letters: Edinburgh v. London, 1824-8
2. Heyday of the inter-club matches
3. Penny post and private matches
4. Moves over the wires: telegraph and phone chess
5. The earliest postal tournaments, 1853-70
6. Changing times: the 1870s and 1880s
7. “Battle at long range”: UK v. USA, 1877-81
8. The growth of tournaments, 1870-97
9. Scottish correspondence chess to 1918
10. Irish and Welsh correspondence chess to 1918
11. The English scene, 1890-1918
12. From one war to the next, 1918-39
13. Correspondence Chess during World War Two
14. International revival, 1946-51
15. Domestic competitions, 1946-70
16. Crisis and resolution: Britain & ICCF, 1951-71
17. The home front: the 1970s and 1980s
18. Growth and success, 1972-82
19. Becoming World Champions
PLUS notes and appendices.
More information will gradually be added on this site.
I hope that a monograph about the social and cultural history of Victorian games will follow later. I am also planning at some stage to write a collection of biographical essays on nineteenth century chess-players.