- Full Title: The Chess Player’s Instructor, Or, Guide to Beginners; Containing All the Information Necessary to Acquire a Knowledge of the Game: With Diagrams Illustrative of the Various Movements of the Pieces
- Author: Charles Henry Stanley
- Publisher: Robert M. De Witt, New York
- Estimated year of printing: 1872
Notes:
Copyright 1859
Inscription: J. G. Pollard
The author of this instructional chess book, Charles Henry Stanley (1819 – 1901) is notable for being the first U.S. Chess Champion, having won the first U.S. championship in 1845. He immigrated to New York from London in 1843 to work in the British Consulate and was an influential chess player at the time. Besides his championship win, he wrote a regular newspaper column on chess, started the American Chess magazine, and wrote the first American book on chess, 31 Games of Chess. However, the standard of play was increasing rapidly at this time, and he lost the next U.S. championship to Paul Morphy, who became an international celebrity in the world of chess while Stanley was largely forgotten.
The back cover and the final 22 pages of this book are all advertisements for other books from this publisher. Entire books focused on very specific topics such as writing letters, giving speeches, measuring things, and even how to keep horses (this was long before cars existed). There’s also many books of popular music for voice & piano (called “songsters”), with not a single recognizable song, and nearly 100 short plays — likely forms of home entertainment for a society that didn’t yet have radio or television.
This book has a copyright date of 1859, when the first edition was published, but lacks a publication date for this third edition. The address given for the De Witt publisher, 33 Rose Street, was only used from 1870 through 1877, which narrows it down. Also, looking at the books advertised in the back pages, many of them date to the early 1870s, and one in particular, Napoleon’s Complete Dream Book, was published in 1872. So, a printing date of 1872 seems like a reasonable guess.
Historical context:
The game of chess dates to around 600 CE in India. The modern moves for the pieces were adopted in Europe in the 1400s, and the first printed book about chess appeared in 1495. The 1800s saw a dramatic increase in interest in game. The iconic “Staunton” chess set style was first used in 1849 and quickly became the standard. Chess clocks were first introduced in 1883 and helped accelerate international competition. Wilhelm Steinitz, of Austria, became the first world champion in 1886.
Further Reading:
Morphy’s Opponents: Charles Henry Stanley