Ramchandra Sapre on Chess :: rare First Edition in Marathi

Born in 1915 in Akola, Ramchandra Sapre was one of the greatest minds in the history of Indian chess. In 1955, he became the first National Chess Champion of India (along with Darbha Venkayya).

Armed with acute analytical skills, Sapre used to send his analyses of international games regularly to Russian chess magazines. As a result, in 1954, a year before he became India's first National Chess Champion, he was invited to Moscow for the World Championship match between Smyslov & Botvinnik. At the time, this was an extraordinary honour for an Indian chess player.

We are now pleased to offer an extraordinarily rare First Edition of his book on chess (known as बुद्धिबळ in Marathi) — Buddhibale Kashi Khedaavi — in Marathi. First published in 1961, this rare primer on chess was authored by Ramchandra Sapre with assistance from Tukaram Kokje, who was the editor of the Marathi newspaper Loksatta. In his preface, Kokje acknowledged that the lion's share of this book was conceived by Ramchandra Sapre. In his own words, Kokje's role was limited to "putting pen to paper".

This rare First Edition was published by V. R. Bam, an artist who was the proprietor of the now-defunct Ramkrishna Book Depot in Mumbai. Bam was well-respected in the artistic & literary milieu of Bombay in the 1950s & 60s. In his memoirs, the great artist S. H. Raza fondly remembered V. R. Bam, "who was running the Ramkrishna Book Depot in Girgaon, an extraordinarily intelligent man, well-versed in the problems of art...".

The strikingly attractive cover and the illustrations in this rare First Edition were designed by Vishwas Yande, an artist who used to work as a peon in the JJ School of Art in the 1940s. In 1946, when the 22-year old VS Gaitonde was about to destroy a large body of his work, Yande requested Gaitonde to give those works to him instead. In this way, Yande was responsible for rescuing and possessing a unique collection of art from Gaitonde's youth. Over time, Yande himself enrolled as a student at the JJ School of Art and went on to teach drawing at the school.

Several images of this extremely rare First Edition are attached herewith for the perusal of those interested.

BUDDHIBALE KASHI KHEDAAVI

Authors: R. B. Sapre & T. S. Kokje

Cover Art & Illustrations by: Vishwas Yande

Published by: V. R. Bam for Ramkrishna Book Depot, Mumbai, 1961 — Extremely Rare & Out-of-Print First Edition

Printed by: N. A. Mehendale at Jeevan Mudranalaya, Pune

Language: Marathi

Format: Hardcover with dust jacket

Size: 16 cm x 12.5 cm

Pages: 71 pages

Condition of the book: Pre-Owned. Excellent — Near Pristine. Pages clean and unmarked. Original tight binding. Slight, natural yellowing/foxing of the pages owing to age. This book was covered in Kraft paper by the original owner, the blank endpapers bear a residual impression of the tape marks; please refer to the last image attached herewith.

Condition of the dust jacket: Excellent — Near Pristine. The original dust jacket is completely intact. Negligible shelf-wear near the corners/edges. The dust jacket of this book was non-removable i.e. the flaps of the dust jacket were affixed to the hard covers. The covers are neatly wrapped in an acetate film for future protection.

Stamp: The date & year of publication was rubber-stamped on the front endpaper; please refer to the last image attached herewith.

Remarks: Painstakingly sourced, this is one of the rarest and most elusive books on chess in any Indian language. It is rather unheard of and is extremely hard to find, let alone in such exemplary condition as the one we are offering now.

Please email us on kumarclassicbookpoint@gmail.com for cost and availability, or for any further queries in order to serve you better. Delivery in Mumbai is free.