The Brain Games Scandal click below Brain Games First published in Kingpin 40 (Autumn 2009)
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Sir George Thomas wrote more about badminton than chess, which makes this article (published in 1927) something of a rarity. In it he compares chess with his favourite sports, tennis and badminton. ‘the true chess fiend is a creature without counterpart’ Chess Fiends! By…
Read MoreTim-Jake Gluckman Chess in the Third Reich How the Game Was Played, Glorified, and Abused in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 Taylor Kingston vi + 285 pages | 98 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, indexes hardback | €49.95 Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2025 Taylor Kingston (TK) is…
Read MoreGideon Ståhlberg: An Epoch in Swedish Chess Volume I: The Musketeer Years 1908-1939 Peter Holmgren xvi + 582 pages | photos and tables hardback | €50.00 Tallinn: Verendel Publishing, 2024 Gideon Ståhlberg was one of the world’s leading players from the mid-1930s to…
Read More© Thomas family collection This is the earliest known photograph of George Thomas (later Sir George). It was taken in Southsea in September 1895 when George was 14 years old. A few weeks earlier he had been a spectator at the great Hastings tournament where…
Read MoreRon Katz* The Carlsen/Niemann/Chess.com dust-up has recently been resolved, but not explained. This fictional explanation fills that gap… “According to this article,” Barb Silver said to her husband, Bernie, “Baby Boomers like us are responsible for inflation.” She was peering over the newspaper she held,…
Read MoreNearly fifty years ago CHESS published this irate letter: CHESS (October 1973) It provoked a lively response: CHESS (November 1973) One reader sprang to Mr Lorley’s defence with knowing verve: CHESS (December 1973) Having made his point, Mr Lorley kept a dignified silence. No…
Read MoreAdrian Harvey Steinitz in London A Chess Biography with 623 Games Tim Harding 421 pages | 84 photos | hardback | $75.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2020 For three reasons this reviewer regards Steinitz as the greatest chess player of all time. In the first…
Read MoreAdrian 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…
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Alan Crombleholme
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Epawn
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Sista
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Jon Manley
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