Give the gift of a book this Christmas

By Errol Tiwari On In Chess with Errol |
American chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura examining the board as he faced France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the London Chess Classic last week. Nakamura won the Classic in the Blitz category cementing the fact he is considered one of the finest blitz players competing internationally. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)
American chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura examining the board as he faced France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the London Chess Classic last week. Nakamura won the Classic in the Blitz category cementing the fact he is considered one of the finest blitz players competing internationally. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, and give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead. – William Ellery Channing, politician and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, 1727-1820

It’s Christmas! As we commonly say, it is the time for sharing and giving. Sharing or giving a book for Christmas represents a thoughtful gift for the season and for all seasons.

At present, I am re-engrossed in Nabakov’s Laughter in the Dark, a gift I received for Christmas about three years ago.

But today, I wish to mention a book that influenced my chess career: Logical Chess – Move by Move by Irving Chernev. It was published in 1957 and has been reprinted many times over.