The Two-Move Chess Problem in the Soviet Union, 1923-1943

[9]+71 pages with diagrams and index. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine and gilt stripe to front cover in original lain shipping wrapper. Edited by Albrecht Buschke, Richard Cheney and Alain White. Introduction by Alain White. Title page decoration by Vera Bock. Limited to 300 copies. Title page decoration by Vera Back. Errata tipped in. (Betts: 36-7). First edition.

A Collection of 120 problems by Russian composers, with notes on the themes, constructions and composers. The problems are arranged in four groups and further sub-divided by theme. Includes an index of composers, sources and keys.

The Overbrook Press was founded in 1934 in Stamford, Connecticut, by Frank Altschul, an investment banker and civic leader with a lifelong interest in book arts and printing. Altschul initially pursued printing as a hobby, experimenting with a small press in his New York apartment. In 1934, he was approached by designer Margaret B. Evans, who had been working for Ashlar Press. Ashlar was closing, and Evans hoped Altschul would continue its work. Altschul set up the press in converted outbuildings on his Stamford farm and hired Evans as designer and compositor and John MacNamara as pressman. The Overbrook Press went on to print an eclectic variety of books and pamphlets, as well as ephemera such as awards and certificates. Evens placed great emphasis on technical expertise and craftsmanship, and even smaller pieces - political pamphlets such as Towards a More Creative Policy and short books on chess problems - were handled with surprising care. There were eight books published by Overbrook in the series.

A Century of Two-Movers, An Artist in Chess Problems, A Chess Silhouette. One Hundred Chess Problems by the Reverend Gilbert Dobbs, A Sketchbook of American Chess Problematists, The Two-Move Chess Problem in the Soviet Union 1923-1943, Variation Play. A Study in the Mechanisms and Relationships of Black Moves in the Two-Move Chess Problems, The Art of The Two-Move Chess Problem, To Alain White. A Tribute from his friends on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday March the third, 1945. All with very small runs.

Condition:

A near fine copy with scarce lain shipping wrapper.