I missed your post earlier. I’m glad you like BvN. The thing is OOP and Batsford, true to their fashion, still owes me royalties that I will apparently never receive. See, if you aren’t owed much, they basically send you a statement every year or two saying “This is how much we owe you. If we ever owe you more than x, we’ll send you a check.” I guess the British have different business standards.

Heck yeah. My “HTML and CGI Unleashed” (Sams Macmillan, 1995, 2nd Ed., 1996) sold 37,000 copies in English and a few thousand more in Italian!! Critics loved it for its turn of the century Noblesse Oblige and character development.

Oh My God, that’s funny! I definitely hope to use the line if the opportunity ever presents itself.

Nice blog! I originally agreed with your opinion that Brady had mixed up the styles of the two Byrne brothers in his book, but coincidentally, I just came across the following words written by Larry Evans in an old CHESS LIFE (Dec. 1963, p.305) in which he describes the participants in the upcoming U.S. Championship:

“ROBERT BYRNE combines the depth, thoroughness and eccentricity of Nimzovitch. He has a penchant for safe, closed positions which yield to systematic strategical concepts. His chess is strong and powerful, and he should be rated as a dark horse to win.

“DONALD BYRNE is certainly as strong as his brother, but their styles are poles apart. Donald courts complications and sharp tactics, always ready for a pitched battle. He can beat (or lose) to anybody, and for this reason cannot be considered a serious threat (although I could easily be wrong about this). One also wonders to what extent his recent illness and absence from the tournament arena will affect his chess.”

Evans certainly seems to suggest that Robert was the stodgy one and Donald the wild attacker, thereby confirming Brady’s assessment. Maybe the Byrnes changed their styles over the years?

I am willing to accept this! Still Robert Byrne was a much sharper player for the vast majority of their careers. Check out the famous Najdorf game.

Sounds like about what I expected.

Yes, I don’t think Bobby’s mind was ‘festooned’ the way Brady depicts it. On the other hand, Bobby was a regular kid, part of pop culture, so say if “Gangs of New York” had come out back then, I can easily imagine Bobby going back to the early 1800s and seeing W 10th Street as a gang battleground. I do NOT see Bobby transporting himself back to a foppish gaslamp era.