Philip Walsingham Sergeant (27 January 1872 – 20 October 1952) was a British professional writer on chess and popular historical subjects. He collaborated on the fifth (1933), sixth (1939), and seventh (1946) editions of Modern Chess Openings

Modern Chess Openings

Modern Chess Openings is an important reference book on the chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Clewin Griffith and John Herbert White...

, an important reference work

Reference work

A reference work is a compendium of information, usually of a specific type, compiled in a book for ease of reference. That is, the information is intended to be quickly found when needed. Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end...

 on the chess opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

s. He also wrote biographical game collections of Paul Morphy

Paul Morphy

Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...

 (Morphy's Games of Chess (1916) and Morphy Gleanings), Rudolf Charousek (Charousek's Games of Chess (1919)), and Harry Nelson Pillsbury

Harry Nelson Pillsbury

Harry Nelson Pillsbury , was a leading chess player. At age 22, he won one of the strongest tournaments of the time , but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.- Early life :Pillsbury was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, moved to New York City...

 (Pillsbury's Chess Career, with W. H. Watts, 1922), and other important books such as A Century of British Chess (1934) and Championship Chess (1938).

Harry Golombek

Harry Golombek

Harry Golombek OBE , was a British chess International Master and honorary grandmaster, chess arbiter, and chess author. He was three times British chess champion, in 1947, 1949, and 1955 and finished second in 1948. He became a grandmaster in 1985.He was the chess correspondent of The Times...

 writes that, "Without any pretensions to mastership

Chess master

A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

, he represented Oxford University in the years 1892-5". Golombek considers A Century of British Chess probably Sergeant's best chess book, but opines that although Sergeant's chess books are lucidly written, they suffer from the defect that, as a non-master, he was not competent to deal with the annotational aspect of his work.

He was a cousin of Edward Guthlac Sergeant

Edward Guthlac Sergeant

Edward Guthlac Sergeant was an English chess master.He participated many times in British Chess Championship, London City championships, and Hastings International Chess Congress. In 1907, he tied for 2nd-5th in London...

.

Chess books

Sergeant wrote or co-wrote the following chess books. The ISBN, where given, refers to that assigned to a later republication of the book by Dover Publications.

• The Art of Chess Combination: A Guide for All Players of the Game, by Eugene Znosko-Borovsky and Sergeant (translator), David McKay, 1936. OCLC 6068811.
• A Century of British Chess, Hutchinson & Co., London, and David McKay, Philadelphia, 1934. OCLC 1835573, 5785804.
• Championship Chess, 1938. ISBN 0-486-21012-X.
• Charousek's Games of Chess, G. Bell and Sons, 1919. ISBN 0-486-25832-7.
• An Introduction to the Endgame at Chess, Chatto and Windus, London, and David McKay, Philadelphia, 1939. OCLC 3354712.
• Modern Chess Openings
  Modern Chess Openings
  Modern Chess Openings is an important reference book on the chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Clewin Griffith and John Herbert White...
  
  (5th ed.), R. C. Griffith and J. H. White
  John Herbert White
  John Herbert White was co-author with Richard Clewin Griffith of the first three editions of the famous chess opening treatise Modern Chess Openings. It was first published in 1911 and is still in print...
  
  , Completely Revised by Sergeant, Griffith, and M. E. Goldstein, published by Whitehead & Miller, 1933.
• Modern Chess Openings (6th ed.), R. C. Griffith and J. H. White, Completely Revised by Reuben Fine
  Reuben Fine
  Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...
  
  , Griffith, and Sergeant, published by Whitehead & Miller, 1939.
• Modern Chess Openings (7th ed.), R. C. Griffith and Sergeant, Completely Revised by W. Korn
  Walter Korn
  Walter Korn was an author of books and magazine articles about chess. Despite his status as a writer, there is no known record of him playing tournament chess, and few chess players ever met him...
  
  , published by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1946.
• Morphy Gleanings, David McKay, 1932. Reprinted by Dover in 1973 as The Unknown Morphy. ISBN 0-486-22952-1.
• Morphy's Games of Chess, G. Bell and Sons. ISBN 0-486-20386-7.
• Pillsbury's Chess Career (with W. H. Watts), American Chess Bulletin, 1922. ISBN 0-486-21543-1.
• The Rice Memorial Chess Tournament, New York, 1916, British Chess Magazine, Leeds, American Chess Bulletin, 1916. OCLC 5634454. OCLC 42985251 (2d ed., British Chess Magazine, 1968).

Other books

Sergeant wrote or co-wrote the following books on subjects other than chess. As in the previous section, the date of earliest known publication is given. The ISBN, where available, refers to that assigned to a later republication of the book.

• Anne Boleyn: A Study, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1923. OCLC 59642584.
• Behind the Scenes at the Court of Vienna : the Private Life of the Emperor of Austria from Information by a Distinguished Personage at Court, by Henri de Weindel and Sergeant, John Long, London, and Musson Book Co., Toronto, 1914. ISBN 9780665988080.
• The Burlesque Napoleon; Being the Story of the Life and the Kingship of Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Youngest Brother of Napoleon the Great, T.W. Laurie, London, 1905. OCLC 2580051.
• The Cathedral Church of Winchester; a Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1899. OCLC 228662417.
• Cleopatra of Egypt, Antiquity's Queen of Romance, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1909. OCLC 5659331.
• The Courtships of Catherine the Great, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1905. OCLC 7222919.
• Dominant Women, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1929. ISBN 9780836911558.
• The Empress Josephine, Napoleon's Enchantress, Hutchinson & Co., London 1908. OCLC 5785897.
• Gamblers All, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1931. OCLC 221288958.
• George, Prince and Regent, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1935. OCLC 185186351.
• The Great Empress Dowager of China, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1910. OCLC 2067404.
• Historic British Ghosts, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1936. ISBN 9780854099962.
• The Last Empress of the French Being the Life of the Empress Eugenie, Wife of Napoleon III, T.W. Laurie, London; J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, c. 1907 OCLC 271179572.
• Liars and Fakers, Hutchinson & Co., 1925. OCLC 34331916.
• The Life of Ann Boleyn, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1923. OCLC 9346521.
• Little Jennings and Fighting Dick Talbot: a Life of the Duke and Duchess of Tyrconnel, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1913. OCLC 223214364.
• Mrs. Jordan: Child of Nature, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1913. OCLC 2699596.
• My Lady Castlemaine, Being a Life of Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, Afterwards Duchess of Cleveland, D. Estes, Boston, 1911. OCLC 14029496.
• The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, S. Paul and Co., London, 1915. OCLC 1907037.
• The Real Francis-Joseph, the Private Life of the Emperor of Austria, by Henri de Weindel and Sergeant, J. Long, London, and D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1909. OCLC 3990561.
• Rogues and Scoundrels, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1924. OCLC 2737428.
• The Ruler of Baroda: An Account of the Life and Work of the Maharaja Gaekwar, John Murray, London, 1928. OCLC 228676095.
• Witches and Warlocks, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1936. ISBN 9780715810286.