Kingpin Chess Magazine

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November 2, 2015 No Comments

How to Avoid Traps

‘A player of average strength asked us how to avoid traps in the opening. We gave him four rules: Move nothing beyond the fourth/fifth rank till all your pieces are developed (except a pawn, if it hits a piece or takes something). When Black,…

November 30, 2014 No Comments

Chess Annotation as a Fine Art

‘A raking pin by the proud prelate. White threatens to thrust the flagship of his armada forward with the galloping move e5, leaving his discomforted steed on f6 feeling like Yasser Arafat at a barmitzvah.’ A great spoof by Colin Crouch from Kingpin 20 (Spring 1993).

November 22, 2014 No Comments

Walking the Walk

It’s a measure of how drab the World Championship has been that Magnus Carlsen allegedly falling asleep at the board and the double blunder in Game 6 have provided its most dramatic moments. The blunder is beautifully captured in this short clip featuring IM Lawrence…

November 13, 2014 No Comments

A Vivid Man

‘As a man Hugh was a wholly delightful companion. He was extremely lively and talkative, full of ideas and genuinely interested in everything that his friends were doing. He liked arguing for its own sake, but was never quarrelsome. He was the kind of person…

November 7, 2014 1 Comment

Ron Harman (1938–2014) – A Champion of the Chess Club

Part 2 : Bayswater – Tales from the Crypt Jimmy Adams At the beginning of the 70s I joined the Bayswater club, holed up in a long narrow side section of a Serbian Orthodox church quite near to Notting Hill in West London….

November 20, 2013 No Comments

Another Bold FIDE Initiative

OLAF STEFFENS After years of trying, FIDE has finally succeeded in crafting a truly abysmal public image for itself. Its Vice President became embroiled in a fist-fight during the closing ceremony of one of its showcase events; the rules for the Candidates’ matches seem to…

No Regrets: Boris Spassky at 60

November 27, 2007· 9 Comments

Lev Khariton The attractive countryside of Meudon is a 15-minute train ride from Paris. Here I came to interview Boris Spassky just three days before his 60th birthday. He reminiscences about his life, his chess career, his rivals and friends. Dear Grandmaster, I should…

Arimaa, Computers and the Future of Chess

February 6, 2015· 7 Comments

Andy Lewis A common Arimaa starting position Anyone for a variation on chess? Is chess played out? This concern has been voiced periodically over the history of the game, and the challenges has never been more profound: over-refinement of opening-theory; perfection of endgame technique;…

Sarah Hurst: 20 Questions

January 8, 2015· 7 Comments

Sarah Hurst was a regular contributor to CHESS magazine in the 1990s and also edited the British Chess Federation’s newsletter, ChessMoves. Her fine book Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld is now available on Kindle at a bargain price. Since 2002 she has been translating…

We Need to Talk about Garry, Part 3

November 16, 2015· 5 Comments

Why Life Does Not Imitate Chess Part 3: The Visionary Followers of Garry Kasparov on Facebook will have noted that he has taken to styling himself as a ‘politician’. What’s his track record? All chess players will know about his campaign for FIDE president…

A History of Chess Theory

February 22, 2023· No Comments

Adrian Harvey Chess Theory From Stamma to Steinitz, 1735–1894 Frank Hoffmeister Foreword by Peter Heine Nielsen 492 pages | 83 illustrations | 407 diagrams | softback | $99.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2022 This is a very substantial work that embraces all the major developments…

Michael Basman’s Questionnaire

November 3, 2022· No Comments

What is your earliest memory of playing chess? I went up to Selfridges with my dad and we bought a wooden set for 10s. 6d. He taught us to play chess that evening. I remember him showing us the knight move. What is…

Basman at the British

October 29, 2022· No Comments

Michael Basman Editor’s note: What is striking about these games is how each highlights different aspects of Mike’s playing style. As you might expect, there is his calling card – the outlandish opening 1 e4 g5 (‘totally bonkers’ –Nigel Short), but next is an epic…

B is for Basman

October 27, 2022· No Comments

In 1968, the American magazine Chess Review introduced Michael Basman as ‘another bright B’ in the tradition of famous British chess players represented by Bird, Blackburne and Burn. That’s some billing for a 21-year-old. Basman would never be the brightest chess star in this firmament…

Moyra Ashford

November 17, 2022

Dear David, What an interesting read and I agree with everything you say about Biggs. I was a journalist in…
→ Commenting on: The Chess Player and the Train Robber

Danny Nakamura

October 23, 2022

I have all your back issues. Sometimes I can even find them. But when is the next one coming out??…
→ Commenting on: Buy all the back issues

Big Fan

October 23, 2022

I already have all your back issues. Sometimes, I can even find them. But what I really want to know,…
→ Commenting on: Buy all the back issues

Paul Dargan

June 24, 2022

Many suffered because of Brian - people gave up the game to avoid being near him. Great shame that justice…
→ Commenting on: Poetry Corner

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