09 June 2013

Cronica de Ajedrez

The reason you don't see many bound magazine sets on Top eBay Chess Items by Price is because the accompanying images are usually uninteresting. Par for the course are photos of tattered, fake-marble covers and a battered spine. Those obligatory images were present on an item titled 'Cronica de ajedrez revista mensual Habana Cuba 1911 Chess Magazine Complete', along with a few more photos, shown in the composite image below. The bound magazines sold for US $885.00 after receiving five bids from three different bidders.


Left to right, top to bottom: Single cover, Capablanca, Em.Lasker, Capablanca

The description said,

Cronica de ajedrez : revista mensual de ajedrez. Haban, Cuba : [s.n.], 1911 May-October. • Chess Magazine. 24 cm. 146pp. Bound in marbled covers, broken and deformed; however, the content is unharmed and not bend. (6) numbers: Año I, Num. I; May,1911 - Año I, Num. 6; October, 1911. Each number conserves their original paper wraps. Damp stain in the lower inner section, otherwise in very good condition. Ilustrated with drawings, photographs and tables.

The seller added,

About the magazines. According to Gino Di Felice (Chess Periodicals: An Annotated International Bibliography, 1836-2008. Macfarland: USA, 2010) there´s no more known published numbers of this magazine. He cites Kononklije Bibliotheek as a public library that owns the 6 numbers, along with the Miami University (Worldcat) are the only public libraries that have the magazines. Very rare and unique chess magazine.

My copy of Di Felice's book (p.69) says,

752. Crónica de Ajedrez : Revista Mensual de Ajedrez (1911–?) No.1 (May 1911)–?. Monthly. Publisher [s.n.]. La Habana. Cuba. 24 cm. Magazine. General. Spanish. Source KB. Availability Koninklijke Bibliotheek—No.1 (May 1911)–no.6 (Oct 1911), call number 60 A 63.

I'm not sure where the seller's 'Miami University (Worldcat)' reference is from and will investigate further as soon as I can.

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