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….
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Olaf Steffens Long ago in Ancient Greece the Olympic Games were invented to celebrate all sports. In the searing heat men would wrestle, run and throw the discus, sometimes even stark naked. Then they would take a break and meet again four years later to compete…
Read More“Chess is a kind of human activity which has room for manifestations of both intellect and the competitive spirit. But this is a bloodless competition. FIDE’s motto is Gens una sumus. And personally, I approve of only one kind of battles – the ones that…
Read MoreStuart Conquest remembers his mentor Our first address in Hastings was 11, Cloudesley Road. Some years later an acute economic squeeze forced us to sell that spacious abode, so instead we moved a few miles west, to a small semi-detached property high up on a hill,…
Read MoreApril 1981 was a fast month for news. John Hinkley had been arrested for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. There were riots on the streets of London. Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, went on trial. The Sun newspaper revealed to a rapt nation that…
Read MoreSergey Tiviakov was born in Krasnodar on 14 February 1973. Alexey Osachuk was his first coach and from 1980 until 1984 he was a pupil of former World Champion Vassily Smyslov. He won the World U-16 Championship in 1989 and World U-18 Championship in 1990….
Read MoreThe world of chess was plunged into controversy last night after the FIDE President, Kirsan Illunatic, unveiled his plans for a new system of deciding the world championship. Instead of the traditional 24 game match between champion and challenger, the title will instead be decided…
Read MoreElisabeth Paehtz (pronounced ‘pates’) was born on 8 January 1985. She learnt chess from her father Thomas, himself a Grandmaster, and became the youngest ever German women’s chess champion in 1999. Three years later she won the World Youth Championship (U-18) and became World Junior Champion (U-20)…
Read MoreMoldovan grandmaster Victor (Viorel) Bologan was born on 14 December 1971. His dynamic style has brought him numerous tournament victories including Dortmund 2003 (ahead of Kramnik, Anand and Leko), the Aeroflot Open (also 2003) and the Canadian Open (2005) and (with Zahar Efimenko) the…
Read MoreNagesh Havanur Endgame by Frank Brady 402 pages, hardback Crown Publishers, 2011 http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/ It all began with wedding bells in Moscow. Regina Wender, a vivacious medical student met Hans Gerhardt Fischer, a handsome scientist in 1933. Regina was…
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