Harley, Brian
Mate in Two Moves” The Two-Move Chess Problem Made Easy

Description

Reprint of the New and Cheaper Edition (first published 1931; New and Cheaper Edition 1941). Octavo, original publisher’s cloth, in the original illustrated dust jacket.

A clear and methodical introduction to the art of the two-move chess problem by the noted British problemist Brian Harley, written in the classical didactic tradition of mid-20th-century problem literature. The work explains key-move logic, thematic construction, and the aesthetic principles underlying the orthodox two-mover, supported by carefully selected examples intended for both the novice solver and the serious student of composition. First issued in 1931 and later reset in a more economical format during the wartime period, the 1941 New and Cheaper Edition and its 1942 reprint represent the principal circulating text encountered by mid-century problemists.

This copy is the 1942 wartime reprint, as stated on the title page (“First published 1931 / New and Cheaper Edition 1941 / Reprinted 1942”), and retains its original publisher’s dust jacket. The jacket is printed externally with the standard Bell design and internally with coloured illustrative panels and publisher’s advertisements, a characteristic feature of Bell wartime jackets and seldom preserved in surviving copies, as chess problem manuals were typically heavily used and their fragile jackets discarded.

Condition: Original cloth clean and sound, spine lettering clear; text block firm. Pages show light, uniform age toning consistent with wartime paper stock. In the original illustrated dust jacket, complete, with minor edge chipping and small closed tears; spine bright and fully legible, internal colour printing intact. A notably well-preserved example of a title most often encountered without its dust jacket.

Scarce in original dust jacket.