Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002908, Wed, 4 Mar 1998 10:19:51 -0800

Subject
VN Bibliography: Chess & DEFENSE
Date
Body
I have been trying to locate this item off and on for a couple of years
since it is well off the beaten track for most Nabokovians. Here
I pass on the information. The article is:

Daniel Edelman, "Cooks, Forks, Waiters. Chess Problems and Vladimir
Nabokov's THE DEFENSE. American Chess Journal, #3 (1995), pp. 44-58.

Various scholars, including myself, have taken a shot at analizing
THE DEFENSE in terms of a chess game or problem. With one exception (to
my knowledge) most of us have not been real chess experts. Edelman
apparently is, since he he is an International Grand Master. His article
is based upon his undergraduate thesis at Harvard and received the Sohier
Award "for the best modern literature thesis by an undergraduate." It was
called "Problems and Schemas: The Solus Rex Construction in Nabokov's
DEFENSE" (1991).

Edelman's elegant essay surveys all of the existing literature on chess
and THE DEFENSE and offer its own solution and insights. It should be
better known.

D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618