CHESS PERSONALIA

Author: Jeremy Gaige

McFarland & Company, Inc. (2005)

www.mcfarlandpub.com

527 pages

$45.00

Reviewed by John Donaldson

The name of Jeremy Gaige is not as well known to American chess players as it should be. This is a shame because, as Bill James is identified as the premier baseball statistician, so Gaige is America’s – and probably the world’s – best and most diligent chess archivist. 

Before Gaige, writing chess history was more an art than a science. It was not uncommon to have well-written and interesting pieces of chess history filled with mistakes. Gaige has done much to correct this situation with numerous books devoted to tournament crosstables and his masterwork, CHESS PERSONALIA. This revolutionary book, which was originally published by McFarland in a hardback edition, has long been out of print. It might surprise you to learn that this 527 page book does not have a single game in it, nor nary a photo. What it does have is the names, birth and death dates, and a list of obituaries for thousands of chess players. And Gaige didn’t guess at this information. He hunted it down by pouring through old newspapers, magazines, and corresponding with many, many individuals. The result is a work that is truly useful for anybody interested in chess history and journalism.

McFarland’s new edition of this book is a handsomely produced paperback that retails for $45. Note that this edition is an exact reprint of the earlier work. I have a copy of Gaige’s 1994 privately circulated update in a binder and am not sure why the additional information wasn’t incorporated into this volume. That said, if you have any question about any player from 1987 or before, Chess Personalia is the place to look first. Jeremy Gaige deserves to be in the USCF Hall of Fame.