Gambit Book Title Competition
First of all, I would like to thank the hundreds of people who entered this
competition. Everyone at Gambit had a good time reading through the many
suggestions, which covered the whole spectrum from serious to amusing to saucy.
Some entrants, such as Stephen Schoeder (USA), even backed up their entries
with cover designs.
A few people expressed concern that the competition implied that Gambit books
were not selling well. Nothing could be further from the truth; we are very
happy with sales and with the way Gambit is developing. However, it always
pays to listen to customers and in this respect I would also like to thank
those who commented on what they liked
about Gambit books and those who suggested ways in which our books could be
improved.
Certain themes repeated themselves in the entries. One group referred to current
chess news, such as the suggestion of Dave Guthrie (England), The Gambit
Guide to Beating the English by Kunte & Ramesh (referring to the success
of the aforementioned players in beating all the English on their way to winning
British Championships) and How to Lose With the French Defence in Twenty
Moves or Less by Bareev, a proposal of Richard Price (USA). Others seemed
to suspect that grandmasters weren’t telling everything they knew when
annotating games: these ideas included What Kasparov Doesn’t Want
You to Know (Garry Barankin, Canada), What Grandmasters Never Tell
You (Ian Brown, England) and What Grandmasters Don’t Want You
To Know! (Mario C. Gomez, USA). Some ideas dealt with practical problems,
such as Play and Pronounce the Scheveningen (Jeff Ledford, USA), Chess
for Working Adults (Surender, USA), How to Improve Your Chess with
a Full-Time Job (Brod Manfred, Austria) and Mouse Frenzy – How
to Master Internet Chess (Jonas Eriksson, Sweden).
The fact that chess conceals a good deal of aggression came across in one
of the largest group of entries, which dealt with the destruction of the opponent.
These included How to be a Complete Bastard in Chess (John Graham,
USA), Chainsaw Massacre Chess (Douglas Ryan, Canada), Thoroughly
Dominate your Opponent Until He Starts to Cry, then Checkmate Him (Alexander
Allain, USA), Learn Kick*ss Chess (Ari Hyvärinen, Finland) and
the brutal Hardcore Chess: floor your opponent, nail him down and deliver
right into the face, mate! (Stefan, Germany). However, I found the best
in this category to be the straightforward How to Utterly Destroy Your
Opponent at Chess (Harvey Patterson, Canada).
The saucy entries were the largest group, and the names of Alexandra Kosteniuk
and Judit Polgar featured prominently amongst these, as in 101 Opening
Lines I’d Fall For, by Alexandra Kosteniuk (Dave Guthrie, England).
There were several other honourable mentions in this category, which generally
reflected a male bias and a perception that chess players don’t always
find it easy to get a date: How to Find a Mate (Joshua Green, USA),
69 French Mating Positions (Mike Dyer, Scotland), 101 Ideas On
Seducing A Grandmaster (James DuBois, USA) while Ieam L. Onley (Australia)
reduced the matter to its bare essentials with Buy This Book and Girls
Will Have Sex With You!. The tactics manual Forked Again! (Andy
Howie, Scotland) was a worthwhile proposal, but Playing With Yourself and
Other Training Techniques (Reegan Milne, Australia) struck me as rather
defeatist.
Other entries were harder to categorise, such as How to Become a Pawn
Star (Carl Portman, England), How to Annoy Your Opponents (by playing
good moves) (Chris Cohen, USA) and Lord of the Kings (Jeff Rapp,
New Zealand). A few suggestions were based on pre-existing titles. These included
a set of GM interviews entitled Interview with a Nerd (Carter, USA),
a collection of GM v Amateur games called Roast Rabbit from a Grandmaster’s
Kitchen and some useful tips on how to disqualify your opponent by influencing
his or her drug test results, Chess Recipes From the Drug Peddler’s
Kitchen (John Hanford, USA). The longest entry was from the staff of the
British Chess Magazine: Garry Kasparov’s Ultimate Gambit Guide to
the 101 Easy Winning Secrets of Beating Your Dad and Bobby Fischer for the
Attacking Player, although I’m not sure how that one would fit on
the spine.
Finally we come to the three winning entries, each of which would undoubtedly
fill a gaping hole in existing chess literature. In no particular order, we
have:
- Dandruff on Board; and Other Chess Tales From a Seasoned Tournament
Player (John Hanford, USA)
- Score More Chicks with the Spanish Opening by Don Juan (David
Lenhart, USA)
- How I Lost! The Good Excuse Guide for Club Players (Carl Portman,
England)
Each winner will receive a well-deserved prize of a free Gambit book of their
choice.
John Nunn
Gambit Publications
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Dr John Nunn is an English grandmaster. He has won four individual
gold medals and three team silver medals at Chess Olympiads and was at
one time ranked in the world top ten. Two of his books have won the prestigious
British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award. |