Playwright Samuel Beckett’s interest in chess is well known, but what did he read about the game? There are several chess books among the 757 works in Beckett’s online library. ‘He also studied the chess columns regularly in Le Monde and spent hours playing chess…
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Jimmy Adams Here are more comments to add to those I gave last time on Edward Winter’s critique of my new book Gyula Breyer: The Chess Revolutionary. Golombek on Breyer Pages 384-385 quote extracts from three Times columns by Harry Golombek (1975, 1977 and 1978),…
Read MoreMikhail 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…
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreJimmy 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…
Read MoreNeil Coward Capablanca and Nimzowitsch were brilliant players whose names are revered to this day. However, these two men were completely different in their approach to chess. Nimzowitsch, scientific and methodical, one of the founding fathers of positional chess and author of My System, a…
Read More‘. . . although chess may be a thoroughly logical game when boiled down, you can’t boil it down when actually playing, so it is of more practical use to see it as logic and romance in conflict. Be ready to adjust your mind…
Read MoreAndy 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;…
Read MoreOlimpiu G. Urcan Literary descriptions of scenes from chess tournaments of the past were habitually the work of insiders (e.g. experienced chess columnists). How would a talented sportswriter with little or no chess expertise describe such an event? The February 24, 1927 edition of the…
Read MoreGeoff Chandler Jose Raul Capablanca. Look at the that? What a magnificent way to start an article about chess. Sometimes when the morning post has depressed me with various companies demanding money, I write ‘Jose Raul Capablanca’ on their bills and somehow they feel less…
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