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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Worst chess book title (Read 8287 times)
an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #24 - 01/15/23 at 17:28:02
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The Royal Chess Couple in Action https://thinkerspublishing.com/product/hans-bohm-yochanan-afek-the-royal-chess-c...

When I grow up I want to publish chess books.
  
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Scarblac
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #23 - 10/31/22 at 12:25:23
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Semkov's repertoire book on the Four Pawns Attack named Kill KID.

They thought they were making a play on the Kill Bill movies, but it just doesn't work.
  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #22 - 10/31/22 at 00:42:19
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Hillbilly Chess: The Bastard Pawn https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Chess-Bastard-Peggy-Watkins/dp/1732765545

Yikes! The title is so bad it's good. But it may not be eligible to win.

Quote:
from the front matter:

Chess - A game of strategic skill for two players in which each player moves and uses their pieces to capture opposing pieces according to precise rules.

Hillbilly Chess - A game of life and death that my family taught me well, especially the Queen on the opposing team. The pieces are family members, and I am their pawn!


I'm not going to read it, so I can't say whether there is much if any actual chess in there, but the hillbilly chess sounds brutal.
  
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MNb
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #21 - 08/26/21 at 07:07:13
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Well, we can totally trust Keene to be wrong on anything he claims.
  
The book had the effect good books usually have: it made the stupids more stupid, the intelligent more intelligent and the other thousands of readers remained unchanged.
GC Lichtenberg
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ReneDescartes
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #20 - 08/26/21 at 01:37:44
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A fantasy of total trust with...
https://www.chessgames.com/player/raymond_keene.html

"The mind just refuses to go there..."--AOC
  
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Michael Ayton
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #19 - 08/25/21 at 21:49:25
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Hilarious! Esp. the bit about the proofreaders.

Wonder if sales'll reach double figures ...
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #18 - 08/25/21 at 21:43:03
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Yet I recalled this from the TOC of the latest NIC:

‘He has a great knack of putting a lively perspective on events.’ Jan Timman has always liked Raymond Keene’s style of writing and enjoyed his latest book.
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #17 - 08/25/21 at 20:33:31
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ReneDescartes wrote on 08/25/21 at 15:14:55:
Really, are we even playing in the same league as Fifty Shades of Ray? The delightful cachet of Keene's reputation, together with his charming  persona, adds something that I wouldn't even try to describe here. --AOC bought out the lottery with that find.

Of course, it's fun to nominate candidate titles for dishonorable mention.


Very much agree. Mondo surely a banker for gold.

For anyone interested in reading (surely nobody who is at all familiar with Keene’s oeuvre), here the book is reviewed. ‘It is a calamitous book...’

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html#11864._Incorrigible
  
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ReneDescartes
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #16 - 08/25/21 at 15:14:55
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Really, are we even playing in the same league as Fifty Shades of Ray? The delightful cachet of Keene's reputation, together with his charming  persona, adds something that I wouldn't even try to describe here. --AOC bought out the lottery with that find.

Of course, it's fun to nominate candidate titles for dishonorable mention.
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #15 - 08/25/21 at 08:27:01
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"How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" - Great book, terrible title.
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #14 - 07/30/21 at 14:15:19
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Jeff Coakley's, "Winning Chess Strategy for Kids" was my 1st chess book as an adult learner and made a huge impression on me at the time. It does have kid-friendly kind of tasks and illustrations, but I took the title as an in-joke. As in, "if you're no kid then let's see you do the exercises." Maybe it was meant to be humorous. Who knows what publishers are thinking?
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #13 - 07/30/21 at 06:50:26
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'Chess Endgames for Kids' by Karsten Muller

A case of bad marketing. I think a lot of adult improvers are put off by the title because they think 'I'm not a kid!' and think it is too simple.

While in reality, it is a very good primer on theoretical endgames.
  
Chesspub; where people devote their whole life to find novelties on move 26 just to blunder on move 27
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emary
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #12 - 07/29/21 at 14:31:04
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Anything with "Geheimnisse" ("secrets") in the title.
It is not worst but certainly ridiculouse. 

I mean titles like
Geheimnisse der modernen Verteidigung
Colle-Geheimnisse
Geheimnisse des offensiven Damenbauern
Geheimnisse der modernen Schachstrategie

The contrast between publishing something in a book
and choosing the title "Geheimnisse" could indicate
a fine sense of irony.
But I doubt this has been the intention.
  
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #11 - 07/28/21 at 14:27:05
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an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 05/12/21 at 04:27:33:
Previously we have had:
But speaking only of the title?

I nominate Ray Keene (2021) Fifty Shades of Ray. The mind just refuses to go there.
https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Ray-Coronavirus-Pandemic/dp/1843822318


Anything with "An Idiot's Guide" in the title.
  
The man who tries to do something and fails is infinitely better than he who tries to do nothing and succeeds - Lloyd Jones Smiley
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MNb
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Re: Worst chess book title
Reply #10 - 07/28/21 at 05:52:01
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Rather Opening According to Jackie Chan, subtitle Kick Ass like Drunken Master
  
The book had the effect good books usually have: it made the stupids more stupid, the intelligent more intelligent and the other thousands of readers remained unchanged.
GC Lichtenberg
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