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I'm interested in books covering the major chess tournaments between 1880 and 1930, roughly speaking. I would prefer the official tournament books, like this one, but translated in English. Can I buy them online? Are they available for free somewhere?

Update: Some tournaments I'm particularly interested in:

Tournaments:

  • Nuremberg 1896
  • Vienna 1898
  • Ostend 1905
  • Ostend 1906
  • Ostend 1907 (including the Master tournament, not only the Champion tournament)
  • Barmen 1905
  • Paris 1900
  • Cambridge Springs 1904
  • St. Petersburg 1909
  • Carlsbad 1911
  • Moscow 1925

Matches:

  • Lasker-Steinitz 1894
  • Tarrasch-Chigorin 1893
  • Lasker-Schlechter 1910
  • Lasker-Tarrasch 1908
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  • I haven't seen an official tournament book translated. Some, of course, are english to begin with. Sometimes an unofficial English Version of a tournament book is made such as Raymond Keene's London 1927. Batsford published a facsimile of Staunton's London 1851.
    – Michael West
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 0:30

1 Answer 1

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St-Petersburg 1914

Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch wrote the book of the famous tournament St Petersburg 1914: it has been translated to American English by Dr. Robert Maxham, as International Chess Tournament, Caissa Editions, Yorklyn, DE, 1993

You may find it for a reasonnable price - but not there.

Great discovery: the first translation from 1915 can be read online!

Hastings 1895

It is a great surprise to me that the Tournament book of the first Hastings tournament (won by Pillsbury in 1895), written by the players and compiled by Horace F. Cheshire, is available online.

Vienna 1882

One of the greatest tournaments of the 19th century, and of chess history, whose tournament book can be downloaded in pdf here - or read online if you create a free account (they say - I haven't tried).

A reedition can also be purchased for a very affordable price.

There will me be much more

Many second-rank masters (Vidmar, Bernstein...) made some money from writing official tournaments books that were eagerly looked for by other players as the main source of information on the evolution of the game (no database, no internet).

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  • Indeed, I should have specified that I do find some books for sell online, but they are way too expensive...
    – Alessandro Della Corte
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 8:10
  • @AlessandroDellaCorte : depending on your budget, I added two other online platforms from where it is more affordable.
    – Evargalo
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 8:12
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    @AlessandroDellaCorte see my edits. Internet is wonderful sometimes.
    – Evargalo
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 8:35

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