Anvil Press Poetry, London, 1981, paperback,159 pp, 260 grams, condition: good+. 

"Chess resembles writing, painting and music in being an obsessional mental activity preoccupied with exploring tension and complication to resolve them to triumphant harmony." In this unique anthology spanning six centuries of English poetry, from Chaucer to the present day, the richness of chess as a source of metaphor for poets is amply illustrated. Andrew Waterman, himself a keen chess amateur as well as a notable poet, has brought together poems widely diverse in kind and in human themes, arranged in six sections: The Game, Players, Philosophies, Moralities, Public Worlds and Personal Relations. In his introduction he explores the compulsive attractions of the game, its uses in literature, the similarities (and crucial differences) in the creative outlook and processes of chess players, artists and writers.

The poets included range from Chaucer and Skelton through Lovelace, Cowley and Goldsmith to such modern masters as Yeats, Pound, MacNeice, Lowell and Berryman, together with a strong team of living contributors.