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The Oxford Companion to Chess

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The Oxford Companion to Chess (cover of the first edition)

The Oxford Companion to Chess, of the Oxford Companions series, is a reference book in encyclopaedia format on the game of chess, written by David Vincent Hooper and Kenneth Whyld and first published in 1984.[1]

History and content

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The first edition of the book was published in 1984 by Oxford University Press; the second in 1992, with over 500 entries, including rules, terms, strategies, tactics, over 500 brief biographies of famous players, and entries on more than 700 named openings and opening variations. There is an extensive index of opening variations and sub-variations, listing 1,327 named variations.

The book also discusses variants from other countries (such as shogi or xiangqi), chess variants (such as three dimensional chess), and some forms of fairy chess.

Wyld, in a 1986 letter to Chess Notes on the terminology and the prose used in the text, wrote, "Hooper and I spent some effort in writing the Companion to avoid words that have a different meaning across the Atlantic."[2]

A third edition is not forthcoming, all the more so since its authors have passed away.[3][4]

Reviews

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Historian and chess master Tim Harding found the Companion to be "rightly regarded as far superior to the various other chess encyclopaedias in English." He laments the decision to include living masters in the 2nd edition, because that meant that earlier articles had to be deleted, for space, but also points out that a few entries are carrying inaccuracies.[5]: 344 

Edward Winter, reviewing the first edition, wrote that the Companion is "brilliantly researched" and a "wonderful achievement" in the "trickiest of areas, the single volume reference work."[6]: 211  He considers it to be "overwhelmingly superior in all respects" to the Batsford Chess Encyclopedia.[7] Film historian and chess aficionado Luke McKernan found it to be "a companion without parallel."[8]

References

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  1. ^ Hooper, David Vincent; Whyld, Kenneth (1984) [1984]. The Oxford Companion to Chess. Oxford Companions. Oxford University Press. p. 414. ISBN 9780192175403.
  2. ^ Wyld, Ken (May–June 1986). "C.N. 1149". Chess Notes. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  3. ^ "Ken Whyld (1926-2003)". British Chess Magazine. 20 July 2003. Archived from the original on 2 August 2003. Retrieved 27 April 2026.
  4. ^ "David Vincent Hooper". Chess Games. 18 February 2025. Retrieved 27 April 2026.
  5. ^ Harding, Tim (2018). "Appendix III". British Chess Literature to 1914: A Handbook for Historians. McFarland.
  6. ^ Winter, Edward (1996). Chess Explorations. Cadogan. ISBN 978-1857441710.
  7. ^ Winter, Edward (1992). "A Catastrophic Encyclopedia". Chess Notes. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  8. ^ McKernan, Luke (28 February 2021). "Twelve works of reference". LukeMcKernan.com. Retrieved 26 April 2026.

Further reading

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