Jim West On Chess: Phantom "Philidor Countergambit"

Friday, December 12, 2008

Phantom "Philidor Countergambit"

In a previous post, I mentioned the bizarre book Philidor Countergambit which has many similarities to my first edition by name of The Philidor Countergambit.

According to the Open Library website, this phantom book was published by Chess Enterprises in 2002, apparently edited by two people named West. But when you click on the link Your local library, guess whose book shows up!

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov