12 January 2008

Fizkultura i Sport Black Books (Not!)

In my last post for this thread, Fizkultura i Sport Black Books, I mentioned, 'The books that I have can be compared against the Gambitchess PGN files to verify whether it is the same book or not. The book on Kotov (marked '*') appears to be an addition to the list.'

This was a good test and confirmed that the 2-3 PGN files I compared were in fact based on the Black Books. The Kotov book, which I also have, is from another series, titled something like 'World Class Players'. Here is a scan of the cover.


I have five books in this series, two of which were not about Soviet (or Russian) masters:-

  • Flohr (1985, Knight)
  • Kotov (1984, Queen)
  • Polugaevsky (1982, Rook)
  • Schlechter (1984, King)
  • Tarrasch (1983, Bishop)

The cover artwork is noteworthy. It appears to be symbolic of a chess Queen, while the spine of the same book shows the figurine notation symbols of a Pawn and a Queen. The spines of the other four books show a Pawn and a different piece, specified in my list after the publication date. The cover artwork is typical of that particular piece. Are there other books in the same series?

While I was rummaging through my Russian books, I found another book on Ragozin, published by Fizkultura i Sport in 1964. It appears to be an earlier edition of the Black Book on Ragozin, although it has fewer numbered games and no photos.

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