How many chess books are there?
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If you take into account biographys and such it may not be true. But there are definitely more books about how to play chess than there are books about how to play other games. That sounds logical.
I think that There are a lot of books talkin' about chess game but I am sure that PLAY chess games is the best way to catch my own skills
Oct 22, 2011
0
#4
rooknite wrote:
I just told a friend that there are more books written about chess than about all other games combined. I have heard this said multiple times, but when I tried to prove it, I could not find any facts or statistics to support it. Is this true? And can anyone find somewhere that actually supports this claim? Thanks!
I went to amazon and entered under books "Chess Books" and it showed 15,966 entries. Granted some of these will not be chess books and probably there are some not listed so you can guess probably about 15, 000 to ? 20,000. Guess is 17,049. (how many jelly beans in the bottle?
CrecyWar wrote:
rooknite wrote:
I just told a friend that there are more books written about chess than about all other games combined. I have heard this said multiple times, but when I tried to prove it, I could not find any facts or statistics to support it. Is this true? And can anyone find somewhere that actually supports this claim? Thanks!
I went to amazon and entered under books "Chess Books" and it showed 15,966 entries. Granted some of these will not be chess books and probably there are some not listed so you can guess probably about 15, 000 to ? 20,000. Guess is 17,049. (how many jelly beans in the bottle?
From Oxford Companion:
"In 1949, B.H. Wood suggested in the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS that the total number was about 20,000. Since then there has been a steady anual increase in the number of chess publications."
I suspect now the number is closer to 100,000.
[edit: in 1913 the number was estimated at 5,000]
If you change "Chess Books" to "Chess Literature" the number probably goes into the millions, with daily newspaper columns etc.
Oct 22, 2011
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#7
paulgottlieb wrote:
Patch Adams, Grizzly dams, Sam Adams Lager . . .not that many
I was thinking more of a universe with many different Adam and Eves(and of course a play on "atoms")
Oct 23, 2011
0
#8
From amazon.com:
Football books: 50,999
Basketball books: 22,044
Ice hockey books: 5,688
Even if we estimate the number of books on chess to 100,000, it is clear that the old statement that there are more chess books than books on any other sport cannot be true nowadays.
Ask GM Lothat Schmid - he's reputed to have the largest private library of chess books.
Oct 23, 2011
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#10
rooperi wrote:
CrecyWar wrote:
rooknite wrote:
I just told a friend that there are more books written about chess than about all other games combined. I have heard this said multiple times, but when I tried to prove it, I could not find any facts or statistics to support it. Is this true? And can anyone find somewhere that actually supports this claim? Thanks!
I went to amazon and entered under books "Chess Books" and it showed 15,966 entries. Granted some of these will not be chess books and probably there are some not listed so you can guess probably about 15, 000 to ? 20,000. Guess is 17,049. (how many jelly beans in the bottle?
From Oxford Companion:
"In 1949, B.H. Wood suggested in the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS that the total number was about 20,000. Since then there has been a steady anual increase in the number of chess publications."
I suspect now the number is closer to 100,000.
[edit: in 1913 the number was estimated at 5,000]
If you change "Chess Books" to "Chess Literature" the number probably goes into the millions, with daily newspaper columns etc.
Are we talking about the same thing here? Are we talking about Chess titles of BOOKS, not number of chess books printed right. "Single titles -Books" not "publications" correct, like magizines etc. a
I'm pretty sure we're talking titles!
Oct 23, 2011
0
#12
I always assumed that the old unproven fact about there being more chess books than books on all other games put together was referring to board games, not athletic games. But I can't prove this either...or the "fact" that there are more books written on chess than any other subject, period. I have also supposed, again minus any proof that this "fact" only refers to books published in english.
I believe bibliographies of chess books have been published.
Oct 23, 2011
0
#14
CrecyWar wrote:
rooperi wrote:
CrecyWar wrote:
rooknite wrote:
I just told a friend that there are more books written about chess than about all other games combined. I have heard this said multiple times, but when I tried to prove it, I could not find any facts or statistics to support it. Is this true? And can anyone find somewhere that actually supports this claim? Thanks!
I went to amazon and entered under books "Chess Books" and it showed 15,966 entries. Granted some of these will not be chess books and probably there are some not listed so you can guess probably about 15, 000 to ? 20,000. Guess is 17,049. (how many jelly beans in the bottle?
From Oxford Companion:
"In 1949, B.H. Wood suggested in the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS that the total number was about 20,000. Since then there has been a steady anual increase in the number of chess publications."
I suspect now the number is closer to 100,000.
[edit: in 1913 the number was estimated at 5,000]
If you change "Chess Books" to "Chess Literature" the number probably goes into the millions, with daily newspaper columns etc.
Are we talking about the same thing here? Are we talking about Chess titles of BOOKS, not number of chess books printed right. "Single titles -Books" not "publications" correct, like magizines etc. a
If we are talking Chess book titles then I don't think its anywhere close to 100,000. If so then Amazon would have way more entries than 15,966. It would surely be more like 70,000 etc. ie a lot closer to 100,000.
CrecyWar wrote:
If we are talking Chess book titles then I don't think its anywhere close to 100,000. If so then Amazon would have way more entries than 15,966. It would surely be more like 70,000 etc. ie a lot closer to 100,000.
Amazon only has recent books, and only in English. The English-speaking countries aren't exactly chess crazy.
davidegpc wrote:
But of course if for games, you meant bridge, poker, or other western games, surely western chess could be above them.
I don't know...there are an astounding number of books about poker being written nowadays (might not take too long for it to catch up with and surpass everybody else).
Of course, the real trump card that chess holds in all of this is openings books...
Oct 23, 2011
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#17
kwaloffer wrote:
CrecyWar wrote:
If we are talking Chess book titles then I don't think its anywhere close to 100,000. If so then Amazon would have way more entries than 15,966. It would surely be more like 70,000 etc. ie a lot closer to 100,000.
Amazon only has recent books, and only in English. The English-speaking countries aren't exactly chess crazy.
So I went to amazon.com France, they only listed 16,619 for "Chess", less when I did it in French. So you will have to show me WHERE it lists 100,000 chess titles before you prove me wrong. If you do I will agree with your estimate. Perhaps you should try Russia. also to counter you statement about Amazon only having " recent books" here is a listing from 1805, do you consider that recent?
Hey yeah, Russian (there's a wacky idea that just might work)...
Oct 23, 2011
0
#19
AndyClifton wrote:
Hey yeah, Russian (there's a wacky idea that just might work)...
Be my guest, but the USA prints way more books than Russia, ie new titles. And my guess is since chess started getting popular we (USA) were probably already ahead of Russia in printing books.
United States (2009) 288,355 ("new titles and editions") [3]- United Kingdom (2005) 206,000 [2]
- China (2007) 136,226 [4]
- Russian Federation (2008) 123,336 [5]
- Germany (2009) 93,124 (new titles) [6]
- Spain (2008) 86,300 [7]
- India (2004) 82,537 (21,370 in Hindi and 18,752 in English) [8][9]
- Japan (2009) 78,555 [10]
- France (2010) 67,278 [11] (63,690 new titles)
- Iran (2010) 65,000 [12][13]
A data point: the chess and draughts collection of the Royal Dutch Library in The Hague has about 30.000 titles: http://www.kb.nl/vak/schaak/inleiding/geschiedenis-en.html