Where are all of the chess books?

I know we are down to just Barnes & Noble for Brick and Mortar stores but there used to be rows of chess books.  Now it is about 10 or so on the shelf.  Most I own.   Amazon has a lot but still not many. I read the IM Silman has like 5000 chess books and other masters say his collection is super small. 

 

What are your thoughts on this topic?

I miss the old Coliseum bookstore that was located on the corner of 57th & Broadway. In its heyday (the '80s), they had at least 3 book cases of chess books.

B&Ns are definitely hit and miss. Same for Chapters/Indigo up here in Canada. With ChIndigo, they've gradually allotted less space for books and more space for tchotchkes and gifts so there isn't the room there once was. Also, while Silman and others may have massive collections, it doesn't mean that all those books, or even the majority of them, are still in print. Chess book publishing is still a niche market that publishes so many different books that often wind up out of print. Besides, I don't remember chess sections ever being truly huge in bookstores across the board. While the chess sections may have been bigger once, outside of a few exceptions, I don't really remember them having rows upon rows of books. With online shopping, I think we live in a great time to be a chess book fan. You can live in the smallest of towns and, between Amazon and used book sites like Alibris, you have access to far more books than you would have had available just a couple decades ago. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic or maybe my view is still affected by the fact I spent the first half of my life living in small towns and cities where good bookstores were rare, let alone good book stores with good chess sections. Either way, I don't think we're really suffering these days. That's my take, anyways. It's an interesting question and I look forward to hearing other people's takes.

Also, here in Toronto, we're lucky to have Strategy Games, a chess store with a large selection of great books. Why can't every city have a chess store? :-)

My NYC bookstore in the 70's and 80's for chess books was Scribner's, on 5th and 49th St.

The B&N near me (I'm in California) has a decent selection. I also sometimes have good luck with used chess books at Half Price Books. 

For those in London, Chess & Bridge is the best, but Foyle's has a pretty good chess selection in their main store.  SKOOB BOOKS (best name ever!)(in the Brunswick Centre) also has some good used chess books, for decent prices, as does the Oxfam book store on Bloomsbury street. When I worked in the area, all were frequent stops when I had a couple of minutes before my train.

Fear not, for those lucky enough to live in NYC, or visit on a regular basis there is Fred Wilson's third floor shop in the st. Denis a block and half from the Strand, is the chess bibliophile's paradise. I always come away with a bag full Chess books after a visit, it's amazing the number books Fred has crammed into his small shop/office.

I was in London last week and visited the Chess and Bridge shop,l would definitely recommend a visit, if your searching for the latest book, not so much older books which is what I collect. Whenever I travel I try visit a city I try visit a least one used bookstore.

http://www.fredwilsonchess.com

I always call just to be sure Fred is in the shop.

Many years ago, I saw a discussion about choosing a chess book. This was my favorite comment:
"Remember, if you like books--like reading them and owning them--there's no such thing as 'one chess book.' ... as you acquire one or two and read them through--even if you don't--you'll find yourself drawn to the chess section every time you walk into Walden's or Barnes and Noble or Borders. If you leaf through the books and compare their contents to what you need, you'll soon find yourself dedicating a shelf or two of your bookcase to chess books. You'll want to have all of Sierawan's books (as soon as they're back in print). You'll yearn to complete your collection of Alburt's series. You'll start haunting used book shops for old copies of Fischer's 'My 60 Memorable Games.' Your hair will gradually grow unkempt, and a distracted wild look will creep into your eyes. If you're separated from your books for too long, your hands will begin to twitch and you'll start plotting knight moves across the checkered tablecloth at the Italian restaurant where you're supposed to be wooing your wife / girlfriend. You've entered a perilous zone ... 'Chessbibliomania' is not a condition to be easily dismissed, and research has shown it isn't curable. Maybe you'll be better off just buying a gin rummy program for your computer and avoiding this chess book madness altogether. :) Happy reading!!"

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chess.misc/msg/d96eccf5ddec3c33

When I got serious in the early '90's I found a bunch of the Owl Publishing chess books at a discount bookstore for between $3-$10 . They were all openings books. A few printing errors but great for the price. They were all I used. Now I collect the hardbound McFarland series book. Love the history in those. 

Well I have probably 20-30 books that I still need to read lol, tons of stuff.  I will be 58 soon and I hope to be studying for a long time.  I have been playing since I was 10.  As one of you said, I love to go and see the book and flip through it and see if it is for me.   That Fred store looks cool I wish I could go visit!   Also I have tried the 1/2 price book store and it was dismal, but the fun is...the chase for the books!!!   all of you guys rock!!

vulcanccit wrote: I know we are down to just Barnes & Noble for Brick and Mortar stores but there used to be rows of chess books.  Now it is about 10 or so on the shelf.  Most I own.   Amazon has a lot but still not many. I read the IM Silman has like 5000 chess books and other masters say his collection is super small.  What are your thoughts on this topic?

Wow. IM Silman has like 5000 chess books? He has a lot of time on his hands! But his chess strength definitely show it. He's one of my favorite teachers. Other than buying books online I cannot even think of one good place that has a good variety of chess books and I go into book stores often. Nowadays I avoid buying more chess material and I just study the free stuff online from sites like here at chess.com, chesstempo.com, and chessbounty.com. 

I think your calculations are  on the low side for paying the talent and paying expenses. $80 for both the hotel and food?  Not sure where that would work.  You also don't account for advertising, shipping, company profit and vendor profit.  I'm sure the real costs come in a bit higher.

 

Also, the fact that the population of players buying books and equipment is small works against us too.  Prices have to be higher because sales at a lower price are not going to produce the profits needed to stay in business.

 

Hahahaha. 

 

There is nothing in our local stores (Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia).  Nada.   

My method is to haunt google to find recommendations... then validate the recommendations against reviews and excerpts at goodreads.com... then order via bookdepository.com 

 

 

 

I'm hooked on www.thriftbooks.com. Plenty of books under $4, with free shipping for $10 orders. Younger players may want to brush up on their descriptive captioning. Older players may find the books they grew up on.

My local library has well over 60! I recently retired and expect to go through many of them....after I get through the ones I currently own.....I find book study(along with this site and You-tube videos) to be as ebjoyable as actual playing!! My take is,even if I still lose games I understand chess better.Best of luck to all.

You're forgetting production costs. The camera operator, studio time, lighting, audio, post production (editing, graphics, etc.) All of that costs $.  

As a videographer, and viewer of many chess videos, most of the production costs you've listed don't exist. The camera is built into a laptop/monitor, the videos are rarely shot in a studio, the lighting, in general, is available light, they use a modestly-priced microphone (hopefully), and post production is minimal with just a headshot and Chessbase, or other software. It no doubt takes time to develop the lessons, gather the games/positions to be used, and we should consider the limited distribution these products have. A couple hundred copies or so? If price is an issue, then scour YouTube. There's plenty there, though the quality of instruction varies wildly.

I used to work in TV for many years, but I must admit, never watched an instructional chess video. I assumed there was at least some production value. My mistake!

The guys at chessbase have some kind of studio: 

 

The most DVDs are like 5 hrs video. The author will make breaks between the videos to rest and prepare for the next section. There are also annoted games, prepared earlier. The selection of opening lines and games also takes time. In my guess that's maybe at least one full working week to prepare and three days recording in the studio for dirty and fast produced stuff.

 

Anyway, chess literature and chess dvds are literature for a small target audience and not mass market. Therefore they are more expensive than a dan brown book or some blockbuster movie.