Main
Date: 10 Feb 2009 08:00:24
From: samsloan
Subject: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan, Acers,
Grandmaster Chess, the Book of the Louis D. Statham Lone Pine Masters-
Plus Tournament 1975 is a very good book, but very poorly printed.

I think it is worth saving and reproducing.

It has 220 grandmaster level games annotated by such distinguished
luminaries as Jude Acers and Alan Benson.

It will take a lot of work for me to reproduce this book, so if
anybody objects, please do so now.

The book is in descriptive. No, I do not have time to convert it to
algebraic although I might include an appendix with some of the most
noteworthy games in algebraic.

The main negative is the print quality. It is basically a typed and
photocopy job. I think only 250 copies were made which is why few have
even heard of this book.

Every chess book I have published has sold at least a few copies. My
worst selling book is 365 Selected Chess Endings by Norman T.
Whitaker. That does not sell well because almost nobody has ever heard
of the book. (As you may be aware, Glen Hartleb, the co-author, died
in an automobile accident only a few months after the book came out. I
think the book was never really published. The printer just made a few
sample copies that Whitaker handed out to a few chess players,
including myself.)

Even the Whitaker book with poor sales has sold enough to break even.

(By the way, a buyer has just given a very favorable review of the
Whitaker book. He must be one of the very few who has bought it.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891846

However, I request that chess players buy my books through Barnes and
Noble online. Amazon stopped paying me and apparently all other
publishers for four months starting in September even though sales of
my books were strong and they finally started paying me again last
week, but at a reduced rate. Much better for both me and the buyer
online is barnesandnoble.com

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=0923891846

I have been thinking about reprinting this book for the past year and
I have been advised to avoid it because of certain of the people
involved. I received the copy I have of this book when Grandmaster Pal
Benko was moving back to Hungary and gave me a bunch of old books and
chess magazines he could not carry with him..

Sam Sloan




 
Date: 11 Feb 2009 19:03:39
From:
Subject: Re: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan,
On Feb 10, 11:00=A0am, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> Grandmaster Chess, the Book of the Louis D. Statham Lone Pine Masters-
> Plus Tournament 1975 is a very good book, but very poorly printed.
>
> I think only 250 copies were made which is why few have
> even heard of this book.
>
> Sam Sloan

A metasearch engine has shown at least three used copies available
(distinguishable by price), which would be one percent of the print
run.

David Ames


 
Date: 11 Feb 2009 05:34:53
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan,
On Feb 11, 6:19=A0am, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> This case has now been settled. The original publisher states that
> this book has never been copyrighted nor was there any intention that
> it be copyrighted. It was published in 1975 when copyright
> registration was still required. (The law changed in 1978.) All of the
> 220 games are probably already in ChessBase, so the main value of the
> book is the 16 pages of photographs in the back. I have agreed to give
> an ample number of free copies to anybody who contributed to the
> creation of this book.
>
> I will have to retype large sections of this book because the print
> quality is extremely poor.
>
> Sam Sloan

Now that Bob Berger, the surviving original publisher, has given me
permission to reprint the book, I would like to expand the original
work to include a tribute to Gutherie McClain, who put his office
staff to work producing the book as a "labor of love" and who was one
of the original seven founders of the United States Chess Federation
in 1939. I would also like to publish a tribute to Louis Statham, who
created the Great Lone Pine Tournaments, to Jude Acers, One of the
Strongest Chess Players in the World, who wrote more of the notes than
anybody, to Alan Benson who I am told did a lot of the work to put the
book together, to Dennis Fritzinger who helped assemble the book. to
Max Burkett, if he will tell me what it was that he did to contribute
to this book, and to Grandmasters Larry Evans and Vladimir Liberzon
who won the tournament and to Grandmaster Isaac Kashdan who directed
the tournament and of course to Robert Berger best known for beating
Bobby Fischer in a simultaneous chess game.

I would like to publish biographies of all of these people. If anybody
can send any of these biographies, it would be appreciated. They can
be of any length.

Sam Sloan


 
Date: 11 Feb 2009 03:19:34
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan,
This case has now been settled. The original publisher states that
this book has never been copyrighted nor was there any intention that
it be copyrighted. It was published in 1975 when copyright
registration was still required. (The law changed in 1978.) All of the
220 games are probably already in ChessBase, so the main value of the
book is the 16 pages of photographs in the back. I have agreed to give
an ample number of free copies to anybody who contributed to the
creation of this book.

I will have to retype large sections of this book because the print
quality is extremely poor.

Sam Sloan


 
Date: 10 Feb 2009 15:34:39
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan,
On Feb 10, 4:01=A0pm, [email protected] wrote:
> On Feb 10, 8:00=A0am, samsloan <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Grandmaster Chess, the Book of the Louis D. Statham Lone Pine Masters-
> > Plus Tournament 1975 is a very good book, but very poorly printed.
>
> > I think it is worth saving and reproducing.
>
> > It has 220 grandmaster level games annotated by such distinguished
> > luminaries as Jude Acers and Alan Benson.
>
> > It will take a lot of work for me to reproduce this book, so if
> > anybody objects, please do so now.
>
> > The book is in descriptive. No, I do not have time to convert it to
> > algebraic although I might include an appendix with some of the most
> > noteworthy games in algebraic.
>
> > The main negative is the print quality. It is basically a typed and
> > photocopy job. I think only 250 copies were made which is why few have
> > even heard of this book.
>
> > Every chess book I have published has sold at least a few copies. My
> > worst selling book is 365 Selected Chess Endings by Norman T.
> > Whitaker. That does not sell well because almost nobody has ever heard
> > of the book. (As you may be aware, Glen Hartleb, the co-author, died
> > in an automobile accident only a few months after the book came out. I
> > think the book was never really published. The printer just made a few
> > sample copies that Whitaker handed out to a few chess players,
> > including myself.)
>
> > Even the Whitaker book with poor sales has sold enough to break even.
>
> > (By the way, a buyer has just given a very favorable review of the
> > Whitaker book. He must be one of the very few who has bought it.)
>
> >http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891846
>
> > However, I request that chess players buy my books through Barnes and
> > Noble online. Amazon stopped paying me and apparently all other
> > publishers for four months starting in September even though sales of
> > my books were strong and they finally started paying me again last
> > week, but at a reduced rate. Much better for both me and the buyer
> > online is barnesandnoble.com
>
> >http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=3D09238.=
..
>
> > I have been thinking about reprinting this book for the past year and
> > I have been advised to avoid it because of certain of the people
> > involved. I received the copy I have of this book when Grandmaster Pal
> > Benko was moving back to Hungary and gave me a bunch of old books and
> > chess magazines he could not carry with him..
>
> > Sam Sloan
>
> I have been thinking about publishing the Lone Pine book also. I have
> collected from the Internet sites a number of the games in algebraic.
> My plan was to add the notes from the book into the game scores.
> I have contacted several of the authors and have gotten their okay to
> redo the book. I don't think it would sell
> in descriptive. It would be a lot of work to put the book out the
> right way. I did not know about the low print run of the original
> book. =A0So I guess I object to you doing the book especially if you do
> not have the okay of most of the authors as I do. I believe they
> wanted it to be done in algebraic in any new edition.

If you plan to reprint this book, please go ahead. I have lots of
other projects to work on.

However, it appears that this is something you have planned for the
distant future. When were you planning to do this?

Max Burkett who did the Lone Pine Tournament Bulletins but was not
involved in any way with the production of this book is now claiming
the right to this book. Are you in contact with him?

Sam


 
Date: 10 Feb 2009 13:01:49
From:
Subject: Re: I am thinking of reprinting "Grandmaster Chess" by Kashdan,
On Feb 10, 8:00=A0am, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> Grandmaster Chess, the Book of the Louis D. Statham Lone Pine Masters-
> Plus Tournament 1975 is a very good book, but very poorly printed.
>
> I think it is worth saving and reproducing.
>
> It has 220 grandmaster level games annotated by such distinguished
> luminaries as Jude Acers and Alan Benson.
>
> It will take a lot of work for me to reproduce this book, so if
> anybody objects, please do so now.
>
> The book is in descriptive. No, I do not have time to convert it to
> algebraic although I might include an appendix with some of the most
> noteworthy games in algebraic.
>
> The main negative is the print quality. It is basically a typed and
> photocopy job. I think only 250 copies were made which is why few have
> even heard of this book.
>
> Every chess book I have published has sold at least a few copies. My
> worst selling book is 365 Selected Chess Endings by Norman T.
> Whitaker. That does not sell well because almost nobody has ever heard
> of the book. (As you may be aware, Glen Hartleb, the co-author, died
> in an automobile accident only a few months after the book came out. I
> think the book was never really published. The printer just made a few
> sample copies that Whitaker handed out to a few chess players,
> including myself.)
>
> Even the Whitaker book with poor sales has sold enough to break even.
>
> (By the way, a buyer has just given a very favorable review of the
> Whitaker book. He must be one of the very few who has bought it.)
>
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891846
>
> However, I request that chess players buy my books through Barnes and
> Noble online. Amazon stopped paying me and apparently all other
> publishers for four months starting in September even though sales of
> my books were strong and they finally started paying me again last
> week, but at a reduced rate. Much better for both me and the buyer
> online is barnesandnoble.com
>
> http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=3D09238..=
.
>
> I have been thinking about reprinting this book for the past year and
> I have been advised to avoid it because of certain of the people
> involved. I received the copy I have of this book when Grandmaster Pal
> Benko was moving back to Hungary and gave me a bunch of old books and
> chess magazines he could not carry with him..
>
> Sam Sloan

I have been thinking about publishing the Lone Pine book also. I have
collected from the Internet sites a number of the games in algebraic.
My plan was to add the notes from the book into the game scores.
I have contacted several of the authors and have gotten their okay to
redo the book. I don't think it would sell
in descriptive. It would be a lot of work to put the book out the
right way. I did not know about the low print run of the original
book. So I guess I object to you doing the book especially if you do
not have the okay of most of the authors as I do. I believe they
wanted it to be done in algebraic in any new edition.