Chess An Illustrated History

• 114 illustrations, including 43 in colour

This splendidly illustrated book celebrates the history of chess and the cultural ambience that has surrounded its game for many centuries.

Chess has been a game of inexhaustible inventiveness and pleasure for over 2,000 years. Always played with strategies analogous to those of warfare, it developed dramatically during the Renaissance into a game of great pace and skill, and since then has been played brilliantly by emperors and peasants, grandmasters and schoolboys alike. Every culture involved, from China and India to Russia, Europe and America, has produced chess sets of exceptional worth and beauty, brilliantly coloured and sculpted. The history of the game has moved across continents, from China to Spain to Russia, and now sees the challenge from the West of some amazing schoolboy players. The Grandmasters of Chess today are international celebrities, and the game – at home or at world tournaments – commands the passionate following of players and enthusiasts.