Saturday, August 15, 2009

Victor Keats - Chess Historian

Mr. Don is here, yippee! He arrived right on time, no hitches or problems in the itinerary, unlike the last few times he traveled here! As per usual, we got into one of our wide-ranging discussions while walking to the supermarket in high humidity and heat (I sweated, he did not), performing yard work (with lots of rest breaks - and I sweated, he did not) and before a late supper (served continental time at 9:00 p.m. in the air-conditioned comfort of the dinette area, where he shivered and later changed into what I consider winter-wear - who wears long-sleeved fleece when it's 87 degrees F outside?), the discussion somehow led to a chess historian that Mr. Don remembered as "Keene" - but what he was telling me of his recollections didn't jive with what I know about the only Keene that has anything to do with chess, so I said no, it has to be somebody else. We went back and forth, back and forth, and then I said I think I have two books written by Him. I dashed upstairs to my library and sure enough - there were two handsomely bound volumes on the origins/early history of chess written by Dr. Victor Keats. Hours later, I am now ensconced in the library upstairs working on this blog and Mr. Don is reading Keats (that is, chess historian Victor Keats) in the kitchen! Dr. Keats has a website, please pay a visit. Dr. Keats has a lot of important things to say about the origins of chess, information that is not readily available elsewhere than in his meticulously researched and assembled books. Here is a list of Dr. Keats' books I believe are available for purchase.

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