The Oxford Companion to Chess

It is a great one-volume chess reference for such a decent price. The Oxford Companion to Chess lives up to the Oxford quality brand. Entries can be both useful and entertaining for chess enthusiasts.

There are many chess encyclopedias. Most, however, suffer from three faults, to a greater or lesser degree: (1) many omissions (especially of problemists' terms); (2) inexact definitions of chess terms; (3) dishing out old, stale fables -- indeed, libels (such as the claims that Morphy had a fetish for women's shoes, that alekhine was a "sadist", etc.) -- as if they were fact. All these faults are corrected here, in the Ocford... Read Full Review

Spanning centuries and tracing it's origins to the dawn of civilization, Chess is one of the greatest and most storied games. Developing from both the East and the West into the most mentally challenging sport, "The Oxford Companion to Chess" informs and illustrates adequately the rich and colorful history of the game of kings. In well-written articles, this companion features the various facets of the complex game. The great... Read Full Review

I don't believe the reader from Athens, GA that said this book helped his game. DON'T buy this book if you are looking for a book that will improve your game. (Its highly doubtful that you would improve much even after HOURS or even DAYS of reading this book.)This book is a REFERENCE book only!! And it is a true jewel. I have both the '92 edition (In Hard-back), and the 96 editon. (A gift from one of my students that left... Read Full Review

This book really helped me in my chess-playing. As the review above says, it describes many many different words, terms, etc. It explains everything from the rules to what a zugzwang is (i wish this had a spell-checker). Best book on chess ever! (p.s. the '92 edition isn't a lot worse than this '96 edition)