Pillsbury's Chess Career [Hardcover]

Philip W. Sergeant (Author), W. H. Watts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0844629081 | ISBN-13: 978-0844629087 | Publication Date: June 1987

The New World has a curious habit of despatching emissaries of great,yet strangely circumscribed, power to the Old. Pillsbury was a man who took the chess world by storm at Hastings 1895, the greatest tournament which had ever been held.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Smith Pub Inc (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844629081
• ISBN-13: 978-0844629087
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,644,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars triumph and disaster-an american chess legend, July 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pillsbury's Chess Career (Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics S.) (Paperback)

lets get the problems out of the way first-the notes to these games are very light and being a reprint of a book from the 1920's the notation is descriptive and the typeface and diagrams look antiquated.

however this remains the best record there is of harry nelson pillsbury an american chess genius in the same mould as morphy and fischer. he came to europe-won hastings 1895 the strongest tournament ever held up to that time-won superb games against the european champions including steinitz and lasker-but then he tragically went insane and died at a pitifully early age.

pillsburys best games all appear here and they exhibit a grand sweep and vitaity of purpose which would make them the envy of any modern grandmaster. his win against tarrasch from hastings for example is a classic race between pillsburys king side attack and tarraschs slaughterous juggernaut on the other wing- richard reti likened it to a hollywood film drama where the heroine is tied to a rail track and the hero dashes nail bitingly to rescue her in time.

until something superior comes along this is the best book on pillsbury and there is no doubt that his games are still full of instruction and can impart sheer pleasure at the vigour and clarity of his onslaughts.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A classic book, but..., November 23, 2003

By 

A.J. Goldsby I "A.J.G." (Pensacola, FL (U.S.A.)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pillsbury's Chess Career (Hardcover)

Everyone knows the story of Pillsbury - he was one of the greatest players who ever lived.

A dashing young man, he went as a completely unheralded talent to Hastings, 1895 - perhaps one of the greatest tournaments of chess history - and surprised everyone (but himself!) by taking clear first place. This placed him firmly in the ranks as one of the World's very best players.

The original book was ... and is a classic. (The first ever book in English on this player!) It is also in DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION.

This volume is simple profiteering. It is a copy of the original by the publishers. (Hardinge Simpole) It looks like a bad copy, and it is. Many of my pages are so washed out; I can barely make out the words and the moves. On one page, there is a large ink blotch that practically obliterates the move. The diagrams have NOT been re-done; they are simple, extremely poor copies of an old-style type of diagram that was not all that great to begin with. Virtually all the defects of a really bad photo-copy are present in this volume. This might be bearable in an old book, or in a very inexpensive volume. But in a book I paid nearly 35 bucks for ... this is simply unacceptable.

If you are a huge fan of Pillsbury - and cannot live without this book, you may want to consider purchasing this offering. But my advice is don't waste your money.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragedy of an American genius, July 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pillsbury's Chess Career (Hardinge Simpole Chess Classics S.) (Paperback)

An interesting volume of annotated chess games of an American chess genius who sadly died shortly after an attempted suicide. Nevertheless the book deals with a great chess player who played some fine games in his all too brief career. Published by Hardinge and Simpole.