'Chess Records' by Damsky

I've already mentioned 'The Batsford Book of Chess Records' by Yakov Damsky in two recent posts -- Not Everyone Likes Chess960 and Kings of Chess Journalism -- so it's appropriate to say a bit more about the book. Even though I have another work by the same author, Kramnik's 'Life and Games', I can't say that I know much about him. Gaige's 'Chess Personalia' gives only his year of birth (1934), while Chessgames.com lists only a single game under The chess games of Iakov Damsky.

Published in 2005, 'Chess Records' never generated much of a buzz. I doubt that it's solely because of a negative review by Edward Winter, 3939. Records, where the eminent chess historian put his finger on the book's major shortcomings.

Its first defect is obvious enough: poor structure and organization (only four parts/chapters), exacerbated by inadequate indexing. Secondly, the author provides ‘information’ without, in most cases, giving any indication as to its provenance. Thirdly, he demonstrates insufficient knowledge of chess lore to tackle what would have been, even for a fine writer, a demanding project.

The title of the book is misleading. While there are indeed some legitimate records -- the type of information found in Wikipedia's List of world records in chess -- Damsky's book is more a collection of hundreds of stories arranged by a loose categorization that doesn't always make immediate sense. The style reminds me more of Assiac ('Adventures in Chess') and Chernev ('Fireside Book') than of Whyld ('Chess: The Records').

I couldn't find a list of those categories on the web, so I constructed one myself, based on the section titles assigned by Damsky. The section numbers and the descriptions in brackets (e.g. '1.1 ... [Game length]') are mine.

Part One: Games

• 1.1 The shortest and the longest [p.9 : Game length]
• 1.2 Where is the king going? [p.17 : King walk]
• 1.3 The more queens, the merrier [p.25 : Queen]
• 1.4 A heavy piece stepping lightly [p.31 : Rook]
• 1.5 And where will you plant your hooves? [p.33 : Knight]
• 1.6 Slow and steady [p.38 : Pawn]
• 1.7 No one ever saw further [p.41 : Combinations]
• 1.8 Fall of the Giants [p.46 : Refutations]
• 1.9 Better late than never [p.47 : Castling]
• 1.10 So many checks [p.51 : Checks]
• 1.11 Unrealized advantage [p.52 : Failure to win]
• 1.12 A record that will not be beaten [p.54 : Adjournments]
• 1.13 When two do the same... [p.56 : Symmetry]

Part Two: People

• 2.1 Chess life histories [p.59 : Intro]
• 2.2 Meteors [p.59 : Charousek++]
• 2.3 Ascending the heights [p.64 : Chigorin++]
• 2.4 Ascent cut short [p.68 : Junge++]
• 2.5 Pauses on the way [p.76 : Career interruptions]
• 2.6 A title for all ages [p.80 : GM]
• 2.7 Old and little [p.82 : Age extremes]
• 2.8 Presidents have a long life [p.88 : Federations]
• 2.9 A council of judges [p.91 : Prizes]
• 2.10 Caissa's favourites and pariahs [p.93 : Luck]
• 2.11 Profession: champion [p.100 : Championships]
• 2.12 Negative distinction [p.108 : Bottom feeders]
• 2.13 The most learned, the most eminent [p.110 : Napoleon++]
• 2.14 Gentlemanly conduct [p.121 : Etiquette]
• 2.15 Gens una sumus [p.123 : FIDE]

Part Three: Tournaments, Matches, Events

• 3.1 In contention for the crown [p.129 : World champions]
• 3.2 Standing out from the rest [p.134 : Longest, shortest, etc.]
• 3.3 Prizes for back markers [p.150 : Low score, high place]
• 3.4 Where history is made [p.152 : Scheveningen]
• 3.5 Summit meetings [p.154 : Strong tournaments]
• 3.6 Year after year, century after century [p.160 : Traditions]
• 3.7 A long, long memory [p.164 : as-Suli]
• 3.8 Sergeant major's orders [p.168 : Unusual rules]
• 3.9 Phantoms of the chess world [p.174 : Ghost games]
• 3.10 Defying the theory of probabilities [p.194 : Coincidences]
• 3.11 The prized apple of beauty [p.204 : Brilliancy prizes]
• 3.12 Second player wins [p.206 : Black wins]
• 3.13 Vertical distances [p.211 : Astronauts]
• 3.14 The march of progress [p.214 : Clocks, Variants]
• 3.15 One against one [p.225 : Marathons]
• 3.16 Unbroken runs [p.227 : Streaks]

Part Four: Around the Chequered Board

• 4.1 All onto one [p.234 : Intro]
• 4.2 Conventional displays [p.235 : Simuls 1/2]
• 4.3 Unconventional displays [p.239 : Simuls 2/2]
• 4.4 Without a chessboard [p.251 : Blindfold]
• 4.5 Prizes and stakes - frivolous and serious [p.263 : Unusual prizes]
• 4.6 Hunting down the prizewinners [p.274 : Unpredictable results]
• 4.7 Terrible vengeance [p.280 : Revenge]
• 4.8 The bitter taste of victory [p.282 : Wins that hurt]
• 4.9 A great sacrifice [p.284 : Living chess]
• 4.10 A priceless book [p.285 : Literature++]
• 4.11 Peace, perfect peace? [p.290 : Draw offers]
• 4.12 Boundless disrespect [p.292 : Curious manners]
• 4.13 A Swedish record breaker [p.292 : Stahlberg++]
• 4.14 Chess mysticism and reality [p.296 : The inexplicable]

While that list doesn't eliminate the book's shortcomings, it should help to locate a specific story. And let there be no doubt : there are some excellent stories here, even if their 'provenance' is missing and even when their authenticity is dubious. The book also contains over 200 games and game fragments. Although an overview of these would be worthwhile, I'm afraid I've already exceeded the time available for this post.