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1HugoDumas
For those considering spending $150 on EP's newest offering "The History of Chess in Fifty Moves" by Bill Price, proceed with caution. He is a prolific author of 24 other books on a wide variety of topics including, "Fifty foods that changed the course of history". First you can buy it new on Amazon hardcover for $18.98. Second consider this sole review (1 star) on Amazon (as posted). There are 2 five star reviews on Goodreads by people who did not read the book! You might want to wait for a review by a legitimate chess master or chess historian.
"I'm unsure what qualifications Bill Price has to write about chess, but they have let him down with this book. The book is littered with mistakes, did Fischer really play 1.c3 in three games v Spassky in 1972? No he didn't, yet it states this on page 107 and even names game six as one of them. The index mentions a Jan Timmins as being mentioned on page 100, not a thing there. If you search you find Mr Timmins on page 200 where he apparently played a Candidates Final against Nigel Short. I'd always though that was Jan Timman. There is also a reference to a Harold Staunton on page 147 despite discussing Howard Staunton earlier on. The printing and layout of the book are excellent, but the diagrams are a shambles with Kings, Queens, Bishops and Pawns being far too hard to differentiate between. There are other mistakes and I wasn't really looking for them they just pop up. As well as this, there isn't a game to be played through anywhere in the book, so if an anecdote takes your fancy, you need another book as well. There are a number of fairly good books on chess history, get one of them. For Mr Price's sake I hope Edward Winter doesn't get hold of it, he'd shred it."
"I'm unsure what qualifications Bill Price has to write about chess, but they have let him down with this book. The book is littered with mistakes, did Fischer really play 1.c3 in three games v Spassky in 1972? No he didn't, yet it states this on page 107 and even names game six as one of them. The index mentions a Jan Timmins as being mentioned on page 100, not a thing there. If you search you find Mr Timmins on page 200 where he apparently played a Candidates Final against Nigel Short. I'd always though that was Jan Timman. There is also a reference to a Harold Staunton on page 147 despite discussing Howard Staunton earlier on. The printing and layout of the book are excellent, but the diagrams are a shambles with Kings, Queens, Bishops and Pawns being far too hard to differentiate between. There are other mistakes and I wasn't really looking for them they just pop up. As well as this, there isn't a game to be played through anywhere in the book, so if an anecdote takes your fancy, you need another book as well. There are a number of fairly good books on chess history, get one of them. For Mr Price's sake I hope Edward Winter doesn't get hold of it, he'd shred it."
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