Albert Beauregard Hodges is a legend among chess aficionados. One of the most well-known American chess players of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he played an important role in transforming chess from a pleasant pastime into a social institution. This work provides an in-depth biography of Hodges’ personal life and chess career and a collection of more than 340 of his games, as well as 15 of his published chess problems. Hodges’ complete tournament and match records are included, along with line engravings, photographs, and several indexes.

John S. Hilbert, a retired senior attorney with the Social Security Administration living in Buffalo, New York, has written 16 chess books and over 100 articles on chess biography and history, winning multiple national and international awards.

The late Peter P. Lahde was a former editor of Tennessee Chess News. He had written on Albert Beauregard Hodges, Alekhine, the Hastings tournaments, the modern United States Chess Championship, and chess in Tennessee. He was a retired research chemist and lived in Nashville.

John S. Hilbert and Peter P. Lahde
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 550
Bibliographic Info: 87 photos, diagrams, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, indexes
Copyright Date: 2013 [2008]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7528-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0862-4
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

PART I. The Chess Life of Albert Beauregard Hodges      3
ONE. “The Tennessee Morphy”      5
TWO. Ajeeb and the “Snugs”      39
THREE. New York, 1890–1892      74
FOUR. 1893: A Year of Achievements      118
FIVE. 1894: A Year of Champions      143
SIX. 1895: A Year of Team Play      169
SEVEN. The Anglo-American Cable Matches      192
EIGHT. Domesticated Play      250
NINE. Tournaments—Too Late      271
TEN. Toward an Ending      287
ELEVEN. The Final Years      323

PART II. The Chess Games of Albert Beauregard Hodges      329
Appendix A. The Chess Problems      507
Appendix B. The Match and Tournament Record      512
Appendix C. The 1897       Staats-Zeitung Cup Fiasco      515
Appendix D. Three Obituaries      518
Selected Bibliography      521
Index to Hodges’ Games (game numbers)      523
Index of Openings—Hodges’ Games (game numbers)      525
Index of ECO Codes—Hodges’ Games (game numbers)      527
Index to Others’ Games (pages)      529
Index of Illustrations (pages       531
General Index (pages)      533

• “A fitting tribute to the man and his time. Highly recommended”—IM John Donaldson (JeremySilman.com)
• “The book is one of considerable scholarship”—British Chess Magazine
• “Impeccably produced…Hilbert and Lahde’s work offers readers not only a vivid depiction of the life and games of an unfortunately forgotten master, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, an in-depth look at one of the most enthralling periods in America chess history”—ChessCafe
• “A massive and very detailed biography”—Chess; (London)
• “Exemplary scholarship, top-notch production quality…detailed footnotes”—Chess Horizons
• “A fine memorial…. The authors research is on the massive scale which truly is amazing”—Dale Brandreth, Caissa Editions
• “Recommended unreservedly”—Chessville
• “An extremely fine work”—Marsh Towers
• “Hilbert, is indisputably one of the world’s foremost chess historians and every new work of his arouses interest on the part of anyone fond of chess history…an important contribution to the knowledge of American chess history”—Quarterly for Chess History