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Chess libraries

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Due to mergers and acquisitions in recent years there are only two chess libraries of major significance and only a few other specialist collections. They are,

  • The John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection at Cleveland Public Library.
    • Largest chess and draughts library in the world.
    • Built on the donation of quarter of a million dollars and 11,000 books from John G. White's private library upon his death.

The most significant publicly acknowledged private chess library is currently that of Paolo Ciancarini. However, Mr. Ciancarini states that several people own larger libraries, including Lothar Schmidt in Germany and Mr. DeLucia in Connecticut. Also, the former World Champion Anatoly Karpov is known to have a large chess stamp collection. Mr. Ciancarini's is the only one which has a catalog publicly available on the Web, and periodically updated.