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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…

March 1, 2017 No Comments

The Accountant Who Shunned Percentage Chess

H.E. Bird: A Chess Biography with 1,198 Games Hans Renette 608 pages | hardback | 150 illustrations | 1,198 games | $75.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2016 Adrian Harvey During the period after 1860 three British chess players had a plausible claim to be in…

March 29, 2013 2 Comments

Play Chess and Live Longer

Adrian Harvey reviews The average life expectancy for males in the nineteenth century was forty-six.1 What is striking about this selection of major figures in Victorian chess is the very long lives they enjoyed. With the exception of Zukertort, whose lifespan was average for…

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…

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…

Two Sultans

June 24, 2020· 1 Comment

Two remarkable players, Sultan Khan (1905–1966) and Victor Soultanbéieff (1895–1972), met at the International Team Tournament at Folkestone in 1933. Sultan Khan, one of the game’s most naturally gifted stars, represented the British Empire, and Soultanbéieff his adoptive country, Belgium. In a dazzlingly short career…

Skeptic

November 11, 2020

Edward Winter, when reviewing the original book in the 80s, noted that "Chess Notes reviewed many works of fiction, but…
→ Commenting on: Chess is Never Square in The Queen’s Gambit

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…
→ Commenting on: Chess is Never Square in The Queen’s Gambit

Frank D Berry Jr

November 1, 2020

Things have hardly improved? One throws up one's hands. These days, the majority of undergraduates and in both types of…
→ Commenting on: Chess is Never Square in The Queen’s Gambit

ImpalertheWhaler

October 31, 2020

Great article, Lev. Thank you.
→ Commenting on: No Regrets: Boris Spassky at 60

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@ejhchess Could be, I've not seen it cited with an original source. • 1 Day via Twitter Web App
"Like boxing or horse riding, chess is one of those subjects that gets disproportionate attention." Hmm. t.co/YV7irF26Ln • 1 Day via Twitter Web App
A familiar feeling. t.co/vCmNOTvG8N t.co/sO75yRFacA • 2 Days via Hootsuite Inc.
The many faces of Boris Spassky. Gligorić and Wade, The World Chess Championship (Batsford, 1972), p.40. t.co/fo4fuvGbCP • 2 Days via Hootsuite Inc.
The real-life Beth Harmon. #TheQueensGambit t.co/6lQXA9W6Yz t.co/O24Tqw8zBF • 3 Days via Hootsuite Inc.

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