22 Mar 14
Originally posted by dsmichelI cut and pasted this from Edward Winter's chess notes. I do not know if the English version varies in substance from the original, but undoubtedly the translation loses a little bit. Here's Winter:
How does the original 2nd Russian edition of Bronstein's book about the Zurich 1953 tournament compare with the English version published by Dover?
6592. Bronstein in 1953
As recorded in the Factfinder, a number of C.N. items have discussed the sales figures of chess books. An addition comes from page 202 of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by D. Bronstein and T. Fürstenberg (London, 1995), in a text by Boris S. Vainstein originally published in the February 1984 issue of 64:
‘David Bronstein wrote first of all about chess as an art. His book International Grandmaster Tournament, (Candidates’ Tournament, Neuhausen/Zurich 1953, T.F.) of which more than 300,000 copies were sold in this country alone, is not a collection of chess games with commentaries but a real literary work.’
The passage is on pages 226-227 of the revised and expanded edition of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Alkmaar, 2009).
C.N. 1949 quoted some remarks made by Bronstein regarding the 1953 tournament book in an interview with Antonio Gude on pages 38-42 of the March 1993 issue of the Revista Internacional de Ajedrez:
‘Most of the nice words and elegant expressions in the book overall are the work of Vainstein, who writes very well ... Of course, the analysis and technical concepts are mine, as are the views on my rivals, but it may be said that a large part of the text is by Vainstein. Also, it is a book for which I do not have particular affection because it reminds me of a tournament that was very special in a negative sense. Things happened there that I should like to forget ... We shall discuss that another time. I do not wish to be more specific for the moment.’
For a subsequent, specific account (entitled ‘Thrown’ games in Zurich) see pages 131-137 of Secret Notes by D. Bronstein and S. Voronkov (Zurich, 2007).