Got $1200 to spare for a Swedish chess poster for a French movie? Me neither. If you do, this poster for the 1927 film Le Joueur d'échecs might be just what you're looking for. I'll stick with my DVD of the movie. What's the most money you've ever spent on a chess item? Memorabilia, book, set, table? Not including the cumulative costs of magazines, lessons, fabulous email newsletter subscriptions...
Are you also afraid to calculate the total amount you've spent on your book collection? Being interested in the content and not the collectability, I've never spent more than $100 on any individual book. I have ended up with quite a collection of Kasparov stuff, for obvious reasons. Few of my favorite books are rare or unusual, though many are old and largely forgotten. One (two, really), that I both love and treasure is Miguel Najdorf's "15 Aspirantes al Campeonato Mundial" on the Zurich 1953 candidates tournament. (Ataneo, 1954) Its obscurity is due to the lack of an English edition and the long shadow of the justly famous Bronstein book on the same tournament.
I've picked up a quite a lot of stuff over the years at various tournaments and I don't put these personal souvenirs in the same category as buying yet more stuff online. (The problem with stuff, described by George Carlin.) Then there is the flotsam of KasparovChess Online, including this poster of one of the original logo sample ads. (There was another of these poster samples where he was thinking "Bomdiggity!" Really. It was never used.) I've got enough chess clutter not to want to decorate with a chess theme, so I'll leave the Swedish one on Ebay for someone else.
Donner's "The King". I don't remember the price; it certainly was high, but after all, there were only 750 copies printed...
Your comments on adding up the cost of chess book collections really made me stop and think. I've spent over $30,000.00 US on a 1,000+ chess book collection, to say nothing of the thousands spent on chess software, chess computers, sets, clocks, DVDs, CDs, magazine subscriptions, etc. Then there's been the travel costs, tournament fees, postage fees, online membership fees... Sheesh! I think probably the most interesting book in my collection is an 1847 edition of Jaenisch's "Chess Preceptor: A New Analysis of The Openings of Games" by C.F. De Jaenisch (tranlated by George Walker), printed in London.
Back in 1972, I fondly remember as a young soul deciding that Chess would be a good hobby because it would be low cost. all I needed was a chess set and chess board. Once that investment was made I was all set.
Of course since then I have bankrupted myself on books, software, tournaments etc. many times over. and it never seems to end.
Maybe I should try golf. all I need is a golf club and small ball. Plenty of used clubs and golf balls.
Maybe I should try fishing all I need is a stick, string and hook. I dont need that tournament bass boat with 150 hp motor. or do I?
I think for now I am going to go out on a date with a woman. after all how much can it cost to fall in love ?
How about a fast car, a fast boat, a nice little airplane. I like to garden. I spend $1,000 growing $50 worth of vegatables. None of my friends want Zuchinni squash and big over ripe cucumbers and soft tomatoes any more.
on second thought $30,000 on chess is a bargain. I should have stayed with chess all along.
My yellow postcard came in for the World Open. Maybe just Maybe I can win some of this money back. been trying without luck but maybe this is my year to win the world open. half a million dollars, I can use that.
Oops the phone just rang. My bankruptcy lawyer wants to know how I am going to pay him. I have to get my check into the mail for the world open. Have to win this year or I won't be able to go bankrupt.
tommy
One man's flotsam is another man's collectible. Many of us have fond memories of KasparovChess.com. You could do a roaring trade flogging those posters, especially if they had Kasparov's signature.
tommy,
You cracked me up. That was great! I take back all the mean things I've said about you.
Re chess collectibles: By pure coincidence, my childhood dentist ended up becoming the head of the World Chess Collectors Association. That is Dr. Benjamin Levene, now in his 80s and semi- or fully-retired, though he still comes to the office where I still get my teeth examined, some 45 years after we first met -- yup that was a few years before I ever saw a chessboard.
Although I don't think I ever paid more than $50 or so for any single chess item, I can say I indirectly paid $300 for a chess book I fell in love with while thumbing through it.
A couple of years ago, I played a city-funded 10-minute tournament in New York's Central Park. The prizes were all merchandise, laid out on a table, and each winner got to pick one item, in order of where he placed. As first-place winner, I had first dibs.
A few in the crowd were murmuring about a fancy German-made chess set that seemed to be the favorite for first prize. I took a look at the box and wasn't impressed by the picture on the outside; but I didn't bother to open it and see the actual pieces.
I'd been perusing the books on the prize table and was very impressed with one of them: Pirc Alert, by Alburt and Chernin. So I took that as my prize (and have been happily playing the Pirc ever since).
Of course, the second-prize winner snapped up the German chess set. I later heard it was worth $300.
The most I have spent in a single chess item was a little over 200 Euro on a standalone chess computer.
However my collection of chess computers was shot dead two years ago. During a long absence from home my house was burglarized and they took all of them. The weird thing is that they left the one that was broken...
Regards,
Francisco
Speaking of Kasparovchess - what happened to the content? Is there any chance of reading the old articles or watching Kasparovchess videos in the future? I have Kramnik's video lecture from game 1 of WCC 2000, and would love to see the other 14 games.
I have much of it, though not all the videos. Most of it is probably locked up in a server somewhere in Israel. I imagine Shay has a full backup of it all. But there are so many copyright issues that I doubt it will ever be released until enough time has passed for us to feel there aren't possibilities of litigation! No, I doubt that would happen, but I'm the only one I know of who has much of the content and the ability to distribute it. Copyright in most cases should revert to the authors, making redistribution difficult. Of course I'd be fine publishing the thousands of pages of stuff I produced, but the items of real long lasting value like all the analysis is another story.
Sorry for being too lazy to grab my dictionary, but what does flotsam mean?
Just so I can show off that I know the difference between flotsam and jetsam, which are almost always used together...
"Flotsam, in maritime law, applies to wreckage or cargo left floating on the sea after a shipwreck. Jetsam applies to cargo or equipment thrown overboard (jettisoned) from a ship in distress and either sunk or washed ashore. The common phrase 'flotsam and jetsam' is now used loosely to describe any objects found floating or washed ashore."
"Detritus" would have been another good option.
At times I wonder how I could have and will continue to spend so much money on chess products (you name it). Add to that the cost of traveling: entry fees, airfares, hotels, meals etc., and it can leave me incredulous.
Then again, I think of all the various cities and locales I've been blessed to visit and experience (probably why I chose chesstraveler as my handle), the interesting people I've met, and more importantly the friends I've made, and the money becomes trivial. After all, when I make my final checkout, I won't be taking one red-cent with me.
You mean your final check!
Mig,
The KasparovChess poster reminds me of when your posts were numbered, and well loved for their humour. I would look forward to them. I really like what you do now, and value it more (so please keep up the good work), but its more, dare I say, curmugeonly. Could you remind us of a favourite pice of 'Mig on Chess' humour.
hai mig,
what happened to chesschamps.com & i want to knaow about Garry's latest chess books and so on.please tell me about that web site.
Don’t get the chance to show off a lot so… I have couple of negatives, entirely scratch free, of Alekhine’s visit to Skopje 1938 (?). In one of them you can even tell the position of the pieces on the board (not sure but have a suspicion that his opponent is IM Pavle Bidev better know as the author of Chess, the symbol of the cosmos, book). One of these days when I get around to it will print some of the photos. Any takes?
Chesstraveler you put this discussion in the right context. Thanks! I was going to do a sketchy personal audit myself, and came to the realization that I could be doing this with all the activities I have chosen to partake in thruout my life. Its the opportunity to visit places that I would never have visited, if it wasn't for my love of chess. Without pulling out my game scores, I couldn't show you the games I have played in these venues I have attended, but the warm friendly chess loving folks I have interacted with are branded into my soul forever. I know it's a worn out cliche, but if I had a "nickel" for every beer I pissed away during my ill-spent youth, I'd be, let's say comfortable man. Yes it was whiskey glasses and women's asses at times for me. How I envy the youth of today who are involved in chess. Just wish Caissa had tapped me on the shoulder much earlier in my life. But then again, some folks are never tapped. Thanks chesstraveler!
I had to buy TWO book collections. I had a pretty darn good one back in ... ummm ... I think 1981 or so, when I "gave up" the game and gave all four or five cartons to the chess-playing son of a friend of mine. I have no idea where he went or what he did with it. But then of course when the "giving up" wore off, I had to (umm) reassemble the whole thing including most of the same books, sometimes for less money, sometimes for MORE. I had Vasiliev's bio of Petrosian which I think I bought at Powell's in 1977 for a few dollars. The damned thing is now $100 in the used book stores. In theory they will sell you one for cheaper at amazon.co.jp . If the copy I supposedly ordered ever arrives, I'll tell you. By the way, people may be surprised to hear this, but owning six shelves of chess books does not, in and of itself, improve your game.
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That's especially true, petrel, if you buy the books and never open them, as is usually the case with me. Ditto for software.
Bruce...thank you,
It seems our younger days had things in common too.
I've accumulated thousands of vinyl records over the years. They've been such a headache to move back and forth across the country over the years I just know that if my long time wife saw my chess book collection beginning to expand from my assigned few shelves (especially with a goodly number of venerable hardback copies) she'd likely pull a chess addiction intervention on me. She'd make me list them all on Ebay and then drag me by the ear to the nearest poker table to provide me with a less book intensive hobbie. If I ever bought a $100 book she'd take away my beer or light my hair on fire in the middle of the night. You single folks have it made.
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