‘The game of chess draws its life and impulse from the contrast between seeing and not seeing and the innumerable gradations between the two. The optical is more powerful than the technical and theory has little significance if it is not associated with the…
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‘. . . chess is a difficult game. If it were less difficult it would not be so much fun . . . . . . what most captures my imagination and arouses my admiration is neither the perfect technique nor the stunning combinative…
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‘Tournament conditions at London were difficult. We played in a large room in Memorial Hall. The ventilation was magnificent, but there was no fuel for heating! To keep warm, each player bundled up in his coat, hat, scarf and gloves!’ Herman Steiner Chess Review (March 1946)
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This item deals with an accusation of plagiarism levelled against Raymond Keene in the magazine Inside Chess: May 3rd, 1993, pages 24-25; June 14th 1993, page 19 and February 7th 1994, page 3. We are grateful to Inside Chess, now owned by Chess Café, for…
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Stuart Conquest The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal M. Tal Cadogan, 1997, 496 pp., £17.99 I recently had the good fortune to pass the night chez one of the strongest Swiss players of all time. Drooling over his amply stocked bookshelves I came across…
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It is hard to estimate how many newcomers to chess this book turned into lifelong devotees of the game; hundreds certainly, but probably thousands. ‘When I was a young player, I read The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev which made chess seem extremely…
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A landmark in chess magazine publishing passed unnoticed this week – and it wasn’t the relaunch of the BCM (that’s next week). After 56 years in print, Dragon, the bulletin of the Cambridge University Chess Club, finally entered the digital age with its 100th issue….
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Mikhail Botvinnik: The Life and Games of a World Chess Champion by Andy Soltis 284 pages | hardback | 12 photos | S49.95 Jefferson: McFarland, 2014 Nagesh Havanur The Patriarch never had an official biographer. He didn’t want one. His autobiography…
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A Soviet film about Alexander Alekhine Sarah Hurst Talking about Alekhine with chess friends recently, someone mentioned White Snow of Russia (1980), and it occurred to me that the film might be available on YouTube, like so many Soviet films – and it is. The…
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Jimmy Adams, Baden Baden 1925 International Chess Tournament: The Arrival of Hypermodern Chess (Yorklyn: Caissa Editions, 1991) Alexander Alekhine, My Best Games 1924–37 (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1939) Frank Brady, Endgame: Thee Spectacular Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer (London: Constable. 2011) David…
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