BAIRD, Mrs W. J. [Edith Elina Helen Winter-Wood] (1859-1924). Seven Hundred Chess Problems Selected From The Compositions of Mrs W. J. Baird. London: Henry Sotheran & Co., 1902. 1st Edition.  4to (285x203mm), 418pp [pages unnumbered], 630 direct mates (286 two-movers, 315 three-movers, 24 four movers, 5 five-movers) and 70 self-mates, with solutions at the end. Very Good. Original blue cloth binding with gold gilt chess decorations on the front board and the same embossed on the rear. Gold gilt lettering on the spine and gold page edges. Gold and white decorative endpages. Portrait opposite the title page protected by tissue paper guard. Printed in blue ink with blue and red printed chessboards. Small number of marks/blemishes on the front and rear boards, some scratches on the rear board and rubbing of the cloth at the head and base of the spine. The front and rear endpages have very small areas of damage where the top layer of the paper appears to have been removed by some tape (approx 0.5cm area). There is also a small tear along the left hand edge of the tissue guard. Light foxing on the title page, but this is not present throughout the rest of the book. Pages are bright and clean. The textblock is square and the binding stable and in excellent condition.

This is a legendary chess book, the first of “The Queen of Chess” Edith Baird, published in 1902. Mrs Baird was a British ‘Chess Composer’, setting chess puzzles for The Times and in two books. Her puzzles, to this day, are considered challenging and novel. This was the first collection of her puzzles published and this is a stunning book.