The forums are a bit slow atm, so I thought I'd post this Chessbase News article from about 5 days ago. Goofups and gaffs from various chess books. And Eric Schiller doesn't let up down. 🙂
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5287
Edit - Regarding this book: "As mentioned in C.N. 2703, there was also a misspelling (‘Golembek&rsquo😉 on the dust-jacket of the first US edition of Capablanca’s Hundred Best Games of Chess in 1947." I recently bought a VERY used copy of this book, and I can confirm the misspelling on the front cover. I did notice the typo, but I just smiled and bought the book anyway. 🙂
Good post.
I have his books, excellent reading. I have of course seen all these
howlers before, he gives more in his books plus much much more.
I had the pleasure of helping him track down the facts about Enid Byton and chess.
http://chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandlerarticle.php?ChandID=132
and
http://chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandlerarticle.php?ChandID=133
We found out that Enid's biography stated that she played chess with
her father. So that was that as far as I was concerned.
But Mr Winter would not accept it untill he actually obtained a copy
of the biography and checked it for himself.
Now that gives you an idea of how thorough he is and why he has the
right to critise all the slap-dash chess writers who simply copy errors
from each other and do not check their facts.
I have that book on Capablanca. Mine is in great shape and wasn't expensive. I like the little knight on the cover of the actual book. Beware ... You will find quite a few typos in the book. I looked at one R-N1 and wondered four five minutes why he played that move. A few moves later the move was R (K1) to K2 or something like that. That meant the earlier move had to be R-K1 not R-N1. Usually, you can discover the typos a few moves into the game.
Originally posted by paulbuchmanfromficsThanks for the warning on the typos. I expect almost any chess book to have some typos, but it's nice to be prepared for more than normal. I didn't really notice the knight on the book before. Very nice - a bit of an unusual shape to the head (more rounded than usual).
I have that book on Capablanca. Mine is in great shape and wasn't expensive. I like the little knight on the cover of the actual book. Beware ... You will find quite a few typos in the book. I looked at one R-N1 and wondered four five minutes why he played that move. A few moves later the move was R (K1) to K2 or something like that. That m ...[text shortened]... r move had to be R-K1 not R-N1. Usually, you can discover the typos a few moves into the game.
My copy wasn't particularly cheap, especially considering the condition. What can I say, they caught me at a weak moment. I usually have more willpower.
The Julian Hodgson Book wasn't a mistake it was a deliberate choice to spell the word how it is pronounced. Trompovsky (as it sounds) instead of Trompowsky (the correct spelling).This is explained in the introduction. Anyone dare to tell Mr Winter his research was a little superficial on this one?
Originally posted by greenpawn34When I sent him a game score that answered a particular query (I pulled the score from the ChessBase Database), he gave me credit for the submission, but went to the original tournament book for the game score. I suppose he has most of these tournament books in his library.
But Mr Winter would not accept it untill he actually obtained a copy
of the biography and checked it for himself.
He is thorough and conscientious, as all authors and publishers ought to be. These days, folks without the requisite skills put themselves forward as authors, while publishers rush texts into print without proper proofing.
Originally posted by MahoutHow do we know that Winter didn't read the introduction? The article doesn't say that the misspelling was a mistake by Hodgson, only that it was spelled wrong. Winter might have been just as offended, if not more, knowing that it had been misspelled on purpose. What if all books were written with phonetic spellings? It might be interesting, but it would probably result in mass confusion and screwing up databases everywhere.
The Julian Hodgson Book wasn't a mistake it was a deliberate choice to spell the word how it is pronounced. Trompovsky (as it sounds) instead of Trompowsky (the correct spelling).This is explained in the introduction. Anyone dare to tell Mr Winter his research was a little superficial on this one?
I can just imagine a novice looking at this book title and saying, "I wonder if this Trompovsky is the same as the Trompowsky, or if it's a different opening?"
In the old pre-computers days some typo's were allowed considering
the amount of data (moves) were recorded by hand and of course
no computers then to error check analysis.
The worse one (for me anyway) was a puzzle in some mag that had
White to play and win when infact it was BLACK to play and win.
The position was just interesting enough to make it look like a
White win was on the cards. The wasted hours and the fury when I finally
'cracked' (something I hated doing) and looked at the solution.
Well it would be interesting to note how the spelling came about in the first place.
Spelling with the w will lead to miss pronunciation...(the book is self published and was written for a UK audience).
In context Edward Winter presents the title as a mistake ("gaffes of publishers and/or authors" ) rather than a choice by one the worlds leading exponents of the Trompowsky opening. The intention of the author was to clear up confusion - hardly a gaffe.
Anyway I've pointed this out via email so will wait to see what the response is.
Originally posted by MahoutMaybe the v versus w has something to do with language translation, idk. I do know I've always been confused by the various spellings of Nimzovich and Nimzowitsch (and maybe one or two other spellings of his name.)
Well it would be interesting to note how the spelling came about in the first place. Spelling with the w will lead to miss pronunciation. The intention of the author was to clear up confusion. In context Edward Winter presents the title as a mistake ("gaffes of publishers and/or authors "😉 rather than a choice by one the worlds leading exponents of the Trompowsky opening. I've pointed this out via email so will wait to see what the response is.
Originally posted by MahoutCool!
Prompt and courteous...I'm impressed:
Dear Mr xxxxxx,
Many thanks for your message of earlier today and your kind words.
I shall be including your point in C.N.shortly, and I also plan to add a
brief addendum to the ChessBase article.
All best regards.
Yours sincerely,
Edward Winter
Originally posted by MahoutSee Note 6045: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html#6045._Trompowsky
Well it would be interesting to note how the spelling came about in the first place.
Spelling with the w will lead to miss pronunciation...(the book is self published and was written for a UK audience).
In context Edward Winter presents the title as a mistake ("gaffes of publishers and/or authors" ) rather than a choice by one the worlds leading expo ...[text shortened]... a gaffe.
Anyway I've pointed this out via email so will wait to see what the response is.