We make our best to describe the condition of second-hand books as accurately and thoroughly as possible. The condition of used books is always stated (only new items have nothing about condition mentioned).

A condition of a second hand book is described by grades – Fine / Very good / Good / Fair / Poor (read more about grades below). For non-expensive books (usually $20 or less) is usually a condition grade given with no further description. For the books which are $30 and up are usually all flaws namely specified.

For the description of the books the following scale of adjectives is used (for example for „soiled“): minor soiling / slightly soiled / a little soiled / somewhat soiled / partially soiled / soiled / much soiled.

regarding second-hand BOOKS: If not stated else, then: all books are quite complete inclusive free endpapers, all plates etc. All books are complete with a dust jacket (when issued). If a book has a dust jacket then the condition is stated for the book and for the dust jacket separately. The condition of the book is on the first place, for example: Very good / Good means a Very good book in Good dust jacket. If the dust jacket is missing, it is always stated in a description. All books are size 8vo (Octavo) unless stated else. Learn more about book sizes here.

regarding second-hand MAGAZINES – COMPLETE VOLUMES: If not stated else, so: All bound magazines are quite complete inclusive special issues, title-page, half-title, index pages and plates (if issued). Pre-1950 magazines are bound mostly without covers, magazines after 1950 have mostly covers inbound. Complete volumes in loose issues are „as issued“ – it means that title- and index pages are present only if they were published within a volume (usually in last issue).

regarding second-hand MAGAZINES – LOOSE ISSUES (uncomplete volumes): If not stated else, so: There is not stated the condition for the separate issue. You can expect mostly about Good. All issues are complete with covers. If you are interested in only some of loose issues within one item, specify ordered issues in the message when you close your order - there is a place for this and for your other wishes in the order form. Or, see here, how to order them.

Fine. A book described as „Fine“ is in a really nice condition, almost so nice as a new book (but not so crisp). The book has no defects (no tears, no soil, no edges rubbing, no creasing etc.). Text is absolutely clean, no marks, no stamps, no writings. Only very very minor wear is allowed, or minor erasable pencil notes may be inside.

Very good (abbrev. VG). Very good book shows some small signs of wear: slight wear to edges or to corners, or covers may be slightly soiled, or some sporadic pencil notes, or neatly written name (stamp) of the previous owner in the book, etc. There are not allowed any library stamps. There are no pen or crayon notes in the book; no tears, no binding damage; only non-expensive books ($5 or less) sometimes may have very light pen note(s). Generally, a book in a very good condition is fully acceptable for any library or collection.

Good (abbrev. G) – there are sings of use at such a book: edges may be partly rubbed, or corners partly bumped, or some soil to covers or to spine is allowed, or spine shows some damage, or in text may be pencil (sporadicly pen or crayon) notes, or previous owner’s or club stamp is allowed (a library stamp must be ALWAYS noted also for non-expensive books), or some foxing/soiling in text is allowed. Nevertheless if the book has more above listed flaws, it is described as Fair. Generally, a book in good condition is acceptable both for readers and for collectors.

Fair – is a worn book. Already not a condition for a collector (exceptionally scarce books or books which you are especially looking for), but still a fully acceptable book for studying. Binding may be rubbed or soiled, or corners bumped, or spine is damaged, or text may have club or previous owner’s stamps (a library stamp must be ALWAYS noted also for non-expensive books) or pen or crayon notes, foxing or soiling etc.

Poor – much damaged book. The copy may be rubbed, soiled, spine may be damaged or chipped, pen or crayon annotations in text are allowed as well as foxing or soiling. Pages may be loose, but always complete. Stamps or names of previous owner’s in text. Text is always complete unless stated else.

Some further notes to the book condition:

All terms stated above are valid for modern books (published after 1900). With an older book (published before 1900) slightly more signs of usage are tolerated (about half of a condition category).

To describe more truly an item, there are sometimes used categories for description as Good to Very good; Near Fine; VG+ etc.

If the book has a dust jacket, its condition is described separately. For example „Fine / Vg“ means a fine book in a very good dust jacket. If a dust jacket is missing, it is always stated in the description.

Some foreign books (Non-Czech, especially the Russian and German ones) being sold for the first time within 1950-1990 show sometimes a small price pen note or a small stamp made by the first seller (mostly on the rear endpaper). This is not stated in description at after-1950 books. Also, a price clipped at after-1950 English books is not mentioned.

For hardcover books it is always specified if the binding is original one. Original bindings are indicated with a capital „O“ in front of the type of binding (Ocloth, Oboards etc.). For these books it is mostly not specified if the binding is lettered or not (almost all original bindings are lettered).

A capital „N“ in front of the type of binding can be used for non-original bindings (Ncloth, Nboards etc.). For books in non-original hard bindings it is always specified if the binding is lettered or blank.

All books that are not in hard binding (sewed, stitched, stapled, paperbacks etc.) are described as „Softcover“ or „Paperback“. Sometimes can be used term „wrappers“ (wrs) which means original wrappers.

Text in parenthesis at primary item description means that the fact is generally known, but it is not stated in the book. The parenthesis could be used at author’s or publisher’s name, place or year of publication, number of pages etc. For example
(Steinitz, W.) - it is known that author is W. Steinitz, but it is not stated in the book.
XII, 258, (16)p. - the book has first 12 pages numbered in Roman characters, then 258 pages numbered in Arabic characters and then 16 unnumbered pages.

Books are ordered in categories alphabetically by authors, except Biographies (by players), Tournaments & matches (by year of event), Magazines (alphabetically by magazine title). There is used the Czech alphabet which is the same as English with one exception: in the Czech alphabet is "ch" considered as one letter and words beginning with "ch" are ordered between letters "h" and "i".

Boards – hardcover type binding, covers are from hard paper. Spine is either hard paper or cloth (if the larger area of spine is cloth, a copy is marked mostly as half-cloth).

Browning (or yellowing) – means browning or yellowing by age. If the browned text has also stains or foxing, it must be written in description. Minor or slight browning is mostly not stated in description.

Cloth – hardcover binding, both spine and covers are cloth. Similar materials (such as leatherette) are described as cloth, too.

Endpaper – Either the folded sheet of paper (often marbled or coated paper) pasted to the inside of the front or back cover (sometimes terms „paste-down“ or „inner cover“ instead of this may be used), or, the first or last free page of a book, usually blank, known as free endpapers (sometimes a term „flyleaf“ or „fly“ may be used).

Ex-library – means legitimatelly removed (discarded) from a public library.

Foxing – rust coloured spots, a result from an oxidation process mostly at older books.

Frontispiece (frontisp.) – a plate with photo or illustration facing the title page

Half-cloth – hardcover binding, where either a wide area of spine is cloth and covers are hard paper, or, spine and corners are cloth and covers are hard paper.

Half-title – page preceeding to the title page, mostly with abbreviated title of the book.

Hinge – an inside part of a book where inner book cover meets the spine area (sometimes marked as „inner hinge“).

Joint – an outside part of a book where a book cover meets the spine (sometimes marked as „outer joint“)

Plate – a leaf with an illustration(s), usually it is coated or better paper. Plate(s) are unnumbered within other text.

Portrait – kind of a frontispiece with a portrait usually of the author or the player at biographies.

Typescript – indicates that the work has been produced by typewritter as distinct from print. Then invariably reproduced by the publisher on a print duplicator. Often used at small (private) or war editions.

Wrappers – (wrs), in our description any kind of soft cover binding (stapled, stitched, paperback etc.). If the book described as „wrappers“, it means original wrappers.

A book language is clear from the book title or from the publishing place respectivelly. If it is not possible to deduce book language from this, it is noted in a description.

At used books we never translate an original book title into English, we prefer the transcription using following rules:

Languages using Roman characters – book title, publisher etc. are described as stated in the book, only a punctuation is filtered out. So you can find for example „Opocensky“ (without a hooklet above „c“ and without a stroke above „y“). German modified characters (with two dots above) „u“, „a“, „o“ are transcribed as follows: „ue“ for modified u, „ae“ for modified a, „oe“ for modified „o“. (for example Muenchen, Oesterreich).

Languages using Russian alphabet – book title, author, publisher etc. are transcribed (not translated) into English (for example „Shakhmaty“).

Authors and players (any language) – we try to use only one form of the player/author name. For example we are using „Bogoljubov“ and not „Bogoljubow“, „Bogoljuboff“, „Bogolyubov“ or similar. This makes searching through our database more comfortable.

32mo - (16mo, 8vo, 4to) – see Book sizes
annot. - annotations
aut. - author
contemp. - contemporary
CPL - Cleveland Public Library - see Reference literature
dam. - damaged
diag., diagr. - diagram(s)
dj. - dust jacket
ea - (et alii) and others
Ed. - Editor
ed. - edition
ex-library - legitimatelly removed from a public library
fep - free endpaper
ffep - front free endpaper
frontisp. - frontispiece
G (g) - good (condition)
handwr. - hand-written
ill., illust. - illustration
int. - international
KaI, II - Kalendovsky: Predbezny soupis… - see Reference literature
LN - Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana - see Reference literature
mem. - Memorial
Mo or Mo1 - Mokry: Ceska sachova literatura 1806-1945. Prostejov 2006 (1st edition) - see Reference literature
Mo or Mo2 - Mokry: Ceska sachova literatura 1806-1945. Prostejov 2015 (2nd edition) - see Reference literature
N - non-original (in front of binding type)
Nboards - non-original boards
Ncloth - non-original full cloth binding
Nhfcl - non-original half-cloth binding
n. d. - no date of publishing is given
n. p. - no place of publication is given
O - original (in front of binding type)
Oboards - original boards
Ocloth - original full cloth binding
Ohfcloth - original half-cloth binding
occas. - occasionally
orig. - original
p. - page(s)
part. - partly
portr. - portrait
publ. - published, publisher
Sa - Sakharov: Shakhmatnaya literatura SSSR. - see Reference literature.
Sa2 or SA - Sakharov: Shakhmatnaya literatura Rossii. Bibliografitcheskiy ukazatel (1775-1997) - see Reference literature.
sl. - slight (ly)
So - Soukup: Soupis ceskoslovenskeho sach. pisemnictvi. - see Reference literature
sp. - spine
stenc. - stencilled (typescript)
titl., title - title page
VG (Vg, vg) - very good (condition)
VKF - Vesely ea: Mala encyklopedie sachu - see Reference literature
vol(s). - volume(s)
wrs - wrappers (in our description all books which are not hardcovers)

Book sizes (from small to large):

32mo            10-12.5 cm tall = about 4 to 5 inches (Trigesimosecundo)
24mo            12.5-15 cm tall = about 5 to 6 inches (Vigesimoquarto)

16mo            15-17.5 cm tall = about 6 to 7 inches (Sextodecimo)
12mo            17.5-20 cm tall = about 7 to 8 inches (Duodecimo)

8vo                20-23 cm tall = about 8 to 9 inches (Octavo)
Large 8vo    23-25 cm tall = about 9 to 10 inches (Large Octavo)

4to                25-33 cm tall = about 10 to 13 inches (Quarto)
Folio            more than 33 cm (13 inches) high

Smaller, larger, or non-typical book are described in our text by centimetres (1 inch = approx. 2,5 cm) – for example 14 x 20 cm means that the book is 14 cm high and 20 cm wide. All listed books are 8vo unless stated else.

Following reference literature is used in the description:

LN - Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana. A catalogue of the Chess Collection in the Royal Library, The Hague. The Hague 1955. - A 1955 catalogue of the largest European public chess library lists 6493 items. If a pre-1950 book is described, a reference to this catalogue is always used. Since 1955 has appeared no other catalogue of the Dutch Royal library, actual stand with some 40.000 chess items is available on Internet: http://www.kb.nl/index-en.html Using: for pre-1950 books.

Betts - Betts: Chess. An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in the English Language 1850-1968. K. G. Hall and Co., 1974. Using: books in English 1850-1968.

Sa - Sakharov: Sachmatnaya literatura SSSR. Bibliografia (1775-1966). Moskva 1968. – In detail described and annotated bibliography of Russian and Soviet chess literature. The book cover also countries and regions in time when they were connected to Soviet Union or to Russia, for example Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian chess literature within 1940-1966, or Polish and Finnish literature before 1917. Using: Soviet and Russian books before 1966.

Sa2 or SA - Sakharov: Shakhmatnaya literatura Rossii. Bibliografitcheskiy ukazatel (1775-1997). Moskva 2001. – Second edition of previous work, added are items published between 1967-1997. Using: Soviet and Russian books up to 1997.

So - Soukup: Soupis ceskoslovenskeho sachoveho pisemnictvi. Praha 1947. – A bibliography of Czech and Slovak chess literature. Using: for Czech and Slovak books before 1947.

Mo or Mo1 - Mokry: Ceska sachova literatura 1806-1945. Prostejov 2006 - An annotated bibliography of books, magazines and other literature in Czech language, published before 1946. Using: for Czech literature published before 1946.

Mo or Mo2 - Mokry: Ceska sachova literatura 1806-1945. Prostejov 2015 - Updated and enlarged edition of the previous work. Using: for Czech literature published before 1946.

Above listed works are used as a reference at relevant books. Occasionally following References are used as well:

CPL - Cleveland Public Library. John G. White collection. – One of two world-largest public libraries on chess, references made due to actual stand on Internet: www.cpl.org in time when an item is decribed.

KaI,II - Kalendovsky: Predbezny soupis ceskoslovenske sachove literatury, dil I-II. In programs of 7th Olexa-Mem. and 8th tournament „Veletrzni“. Brno 1982-83. – Czech and Slovak books within 1948-1982. Some items are duplicated in this bibliography - that is why KaI for the first part and KaII for the second part.

Gaige - Gaige: Chess Personalia. A Biobibliography. Jefferson etc. 1987. – Used sometimes for biographical data.

VKF - Vesely / Kalendovsky / Formanek: Mala encyklopedie sachu. Praha 1989. – Encyclopedic dictionary, used sometimes for biographical data of Czech and Slovak persons.

Whyld -    1) Whyld: Chess Columns. A List. Olomouc 2002 – Used for chess columns in non-chess periodicals.
           -    2)   Whyld / Ravilious: Chess Texts in the English Language, printed before 1850. An Annotated Bibliography. Olomouc (2002) – Used for pre-1850 chess literature in English.

di Felice -    1) di Felice: Chess Periodicals. An Annotated International Bibliography, 1836-2008. Olomouc 2010 – used for chess magazines.
               -    2) di Felice: Chess Competitions, 1824-1970. An Annotated International Bibliography of Books, Bulletins, and Programs. Olomouc 2012 - used for tournaments and matches.   

If you have any doubts about terms etc, please write us.