HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY: A Genius Ahead of his Time
Author: Alexander Cherniaev
131 pages
$29.95

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman

It's a fact that certain players in chess history have been blessed by one or more books that define their lives and games, while others have for one reason or another not received the same honor. Examples of these serious (hardback) collections (about deceased players) are:

AMOS BURN(by Forster)

REUBEN FINE(byWoodger)

SAMUEL RESHEVSKY (by Gordon)

CARL SCHLECHTER (by Goldman)

NAPIER (by Hilbert)

WILLIAM STEINITZ, CHESS CHAMPION(a pure biography by Landsberger)

FRANK MARSHALL(by Soltis)

AKIBA RUBINSTEIN: UNCROWNED KING (by Donaldson)

THE GAMES OF TIGRAN PETROSIAN, Volumes 1 and 2 (by Shekhtman)

PAUL MORPHY: THE PRIDE AND SORROW OF CHESS (by Lawson)

DE LA BOURDONNAIS VERSUS McDONNELL, 1834 (by Utterberg)

CAPABLANCA (a pure biography by Winter)

ALEXANDER ALEKHINE'S CHESS GAMES, 1902-1946 (by Skinner and Verhoeven)

COMPLETE GAMES OF ALEKHINE, Volumes 1-2 (Wonderful biographical information mixed with all his games by Fiala and Kalendovsky)

ALEKHINE: AGONY OF A CHESS GENIUS (pure biography by Moran)

There are more, but having all of these in your collection would instantly label you as a serious chess book collector/fanatic, AND a lover of chess history.

There are, of course, many superlative paperback collections that treat us to the lives and games of past greats. To give a very tiny sampling:

THE LIFE AND GAMES OF MIKHAIL TAL (by Tal)

MY BEST GAMES OF CHESS (Alekhine on Alekhine)

GRANDMASTER OF CHESS, THE EARLY, MIDDLE, AND LATER YEARS (about and by Keres. Originally published in three fine hardbacks, they eventually appeared in an all in one paperback edition)

BOGOLJUBOW: THE FATE OF A CHESS PLAYER(Soloviov)

Since Pillsbury never received a hardcover opus as in our first list, or even a top of the line paperback collection with insightful bio, I had very high hopes that Cherniaev's HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY would fill this void. Alas, this was not to be.

The first warning sign that something was amiss blasted by me when I noticed that the book was only 131 pages. There is just no way that a nice bio, crosstables, and fifty deeply annotated games were going to fit into such a small space. Something had to give. The crosstables (given at the end of the book) were nice and most welcome (though didn't represent a complete view of Pillsbury's career), so that left biographical material and games. It turned out that both these critical items were DOA.

In the one page introduction written by Shirov, the great Latvian attacking genius talked about his love for Pillsbury's games. He then referred to the author, Alexander Cherniaev, as "a strong chess player but also a diligent researcher." Perhaps that is true, but in the case of this book I saw absolutely no sign that true research was done.

The first biographical material (two pages) to appear in the book is a direct copy (with proper attribution) of material written by Reuben Fine in his THE WORLD'S GREAT CHESS GAMES (a fun book that can usually be found in a good used bookstore). Next up is a couple more pages, this time by Pillsbury himself from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1899. Great stuff, but it only whets the appetite. Some photographs (always welcome) and quotes by famous players follow, and the non-game section ends with a small outtake from THE EVEN MORE COMPLETE CHESS ADDICT by Fox and James. The end of the book gives us those nice crosstables and another wonderful piece by Pillsbury from 1895.

Other than the half page foreword and the actual game notes, I couldn't find anything written by Mr. Cherniaev. Does he really think that there's nothing else by or about Pillsbury waiting to be found?

Let's take a look at what I deem to be the best book on Pillsbury (the German language SCHACHMEISTER PILLSBURY by Bachmann, though 277 pages, is a disappointment and need not be discussed): HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY: AMERICAN CHESS CHAMPION by Pope (1996, 376 pages). This book offers 46 pages of biographical material, offers 907 games (many with notes and annotations by Tarrasch, Lasker, Chigorin, Steinitz, Marshall, Showalter and Pillsbury), gives many more crosstables than Cherniaev does, and also has the two articles by Pillsbury. Yet, as nice as all this is, a dedicated author could still come up with a FAR more detailed book on Pillsbury if he wished to devote a few years to such a project.

Though I hate to trash a book, I'm forced to do so here. With minimal biographical material, no prose from the author to speak of, and game notes that offer bare-bone comments or better ones taken from older and much quoted sources, HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY: A GENIUS AHEAD OF HIS TIME is more a data-dump than an original piece of work.

If you want something worthwhile on Pillsbury, hunt down Pope's HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY: AMERICAN CHESS CHAMPION (it's out of print so might take a while to find). It will make you happy until some chess historian (Calling Mr. Hilbert, Mr. Donaldson, or Mr. Forster!) puts together the defining book on the subject.

Click to buy (or get more information about) HARRY NELSON PILLSBURY: GENIUS AHEAD OF HIS TIME

Click to buy (or get more information about) AMOS BURN, A CHESS BIOGRAPHY

Click to buy (or get more information about) REUBEN FINE - A COMPREHENSIVE RECORD OF AN AMERICAN CHESS CAREER: 1929-1951

Click to buy (or get more information about) SAMUEL RESHEVSKY

Click to buy (or get more information about) CARL SCHLECHTER

Click to buy (or get more information about) NAPIER: THE FORGOTTEN CHESSMASTER

Click to buy (or get more information about) WILLIAM STEINITZ, CHESS CHAMPION

Click to buy (or get more information about) FRANK MARSHALL, US CHESS CHAMPION

Click to buy (or get more information about) LIFE & GAMES OF AKIBA RUBINSTEIN: VOLUME 1

Click to buy (or get more information about) ALEXANDER ALEKHINE'S CHESS GAMES: 1902 - 1946

Click to buy (or get more information about) COMPLETE GAMES OF ALEKHINE, VOLUME ONE: 1892-1921

Click to buy (or get more information about) COMPLETE GAMES OF ALEKHINE, VOLUME TWO: 1921-1924

Click to buy (or get more information about) A. ALEKHINE AGONY OF A CHESS GENIUS

Click to buy (or get more information about) THE LIFE AND GAMES OF MIKHAIL TAL

Click to buy (or get more information about) BOGOLJUBOW - THE FATE OF A CHESS PLAYER