Seven Hundred Chess Problems

Author: Baird, Mrs William James (Edith Elina Helen Wood) [1859-1924]Year: 1902Publisher: Henry Sotheran & CoPlace: LondonDescription:unpaginated (418) with frontispiece portrait and column diagrams. Quarto (11 1/4" x 8") issued in blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine and decorative gilt cover, page ends in gilt, decorative flower gilt end papers, beveled edges. The text is printed in blue, the diagrams in blue and red. (Betts: 33-5) 1st edition.630 direct mates (286 two-movers, 315 three-movers, 24 four movers, 5 five-movers) and 70 self-mates, with solutions at the end. 2 large diagrams are given to each page. In the mid 1880s, Baird started composing chess problems and within a few years had gained a reputation in the field. In 1888, she took third prize in a Sheffield chess-composition tournament, the first of over two dozen subsequent prizes. Her most celebrated success came in 1893 when she won an international chess-composition tournament against a number of the most nota