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September 7, 2018 No Comments

Searching for André Philidor

Interest in François-André Danican Philidor revived in 1926, the 200th anniversary of his birth. Celebrations were planned at his birthplace, Drieux in the Champagne region of France, and Biarritz. In England too chess players were keen to mark the occasion. Bust of Philidor (Cleveland Public Library…

August 6, 2018 No Comments

Fiendish Moves #3

Uitumen – Lein Sochi, 1965 Black to play 12…h5!! A fine move, and the only good one. 13 fxe5 Bg4 14 Qb3 Qf2 15 Qxb7? It was better to play 15 Rd1, and if 15…Be2 only then 16 Qxb7. 15…Qxe1…

June 24, 2018 No Comments

H.J.R. Murray: Historian, Chess Player, Poet

Today marks the 150th birthday of Harold James Ruthven Murray (1868–1955), best known for his A History of Chess, published in 1913. The fruits of fourteen years of research, this monumental work of scholarship has been described as ‘perhaps the most important chess book in English’…

November 30, 2017 1 Comment

GYULA BREYER, Part 3

Jimmy Adams A continuation of my ‘Right to Reply’ to Edward Winter’s comments on my new book Gyula Breyer: The Chess Revolutionary. ‘White’s game is in the last throes’ Pages 694-696 deal with this matter, superficially, making no mention of Breyer and the Last Throes….

April 11, 2015 No Comments

Arrogance

‘Self-admiration is as a tape-worm of the brain. It particularly infests Chess-players and is rarely eradicated.’ William Norwood Potter British Chess Magazine (July 1883), p.244 ‘I was at a very high peak and felt invincible. Not only did this make me complacent, but it…

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).

February 26, 2010 No Comments

Ida Eddis Foster’s letters in Kingpin

Ida’s letters to Kingpin

No Regrets: Boris Spassky at 60

November 27, 2007· 8 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…

Self-help

January 3, 2021· No Comments

Chess Improvement It’s all in the mindset Barry Hymer and Peter Wells 334 pages | Softback | Bibliography | Index | £15.99 Crown House Publishing, 2020 Carl Portman This is not so much a review as a summary of my thoughts as a passionate…

Chess is Never Square in The Queen’s Gambit

October 30, 2020· 3 Comments

Sarah Hurst The Queen’s Gambit is an entertaining Netflix drama based on a novel that presents chess in a positive light and makes all the right points about women’s struggles on and off the board. It’s hard these days not to see all period drama…

Horsing Around

October 20, 2020· No Comments

Writer Patrick Leigh Fermor and wife Joan social distancing with friends on the Greek island of Hydra in 1954 (Clockwise from top left: Patrick Leigh Fermor, Cyril Connolly, Maurice Bowra, unknown, Joan Leigh Fermor) Joan Leigh Fermor (née Rayner) was ‘addicted to chess’ (obituary, Daily…

Chess and Recession

October 17, 2020· No Comments

“There is a new era in chess. For the past three years new clubs have been springing up in mushroom growths, chess books of all sorts are avidly bought, library shelves are depleted of these volumes. Newspapers are giving more space to the game, recognizing…

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January 22, 2021

"What is the purpose of FIDE?" heh that was funny
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Skeptic

November 11, 2020

Edward Winter, when reviewing the original book in the 80s, noted that "Chess Notes reviewed many works of fiction, but…
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Sarah Hurst

November 1, 2020

Yes Frank, I said that great players are respected regardless of gender. There are many other references to sexism in…
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Frank D Berry Jr