''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' is a reference book on the game of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

written by

David Vincent Hooper David Vincent Hooper (31 August 1915 – 3 May 1998), born in Reigate, was a British chess player and writer. As an amateur, he tied for fifth place in the 1949 British Championship at Felixstowe. He was the British correspondence chess champio ...

and

Kenneth Whyld Kenneth Whyld (6 March 1926 – 11 July 2003) was a British chess author and researcher, best known as the co-author (with David Hooper) of ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', a single-volume chess reference work in English. Whyld was a str ...

. The book is written in an encyclopedia format. The book belongs to the

Oxford Companions ''Oxford Companions'' is a book series published by Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates b ...

series.

Details

The first edition of the book was published in 1984 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. The second edition (1992) has over 2,500 entries, including

rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...

, terms,

strategies Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " ar ...

tactics Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tact ...

, over 500 brief biographies of famous players, and entries on more than 700 named openings and opening variations. In the back of the book is a comprehensive index of opening variations and sub-variations, listing 1,327 named variations. The book also discusses chess from other countries (such as shogi), chess variants (such as three dimensional chess), and some forms of

fairy chess Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. The term was introduced by Henry Tate in 1914. Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess", invented many fairy pieces and new ...

Editions

* First published in 1984 by

* Reissued in paperback (with corrections) in 1987 by Oxford University Press * Second edition published in 1992 by Oxford University Press, * Paperback version of the second edition in 1996

References

1984 non-fiction books 1992 non-fiction books 1984 in chess 1992 in chess Chess books Oxford University Press reference books {{chess-book-stub