Kingpin Chess Magazine

Latest in McFarland

May 29, 2020 No Comments

Deep Bloke, Shallow Book

Fred Reinfeld The Man Who Taught America Chess, with 282 Games Alex Dunne 194 pages | Softback | Bibliography, Indexes | $45.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2018 Tim-Jake Gluckman This biography of Fred Reinfeld (1910-1964) covers the chess life of an outstanding producer (writing, editing, ghosting and…

February 24, 2019 No Comments

The Executioner from Berlin

Hans Renette Kurt Richter A Chess Biography with 499 Games Alan McGowan 380 pages | 93 photos | hardback | $75.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2018 A few months ago McFarland’s new-born chess book saw the light of day. After working for over four decades…

July 27, 2014 No Comments

Books for review, February 2016

Email kingpinchess@yahoo.com if you would like to review any of these:

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· 1 Comment

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…

Remembering IM Colin Crouch (14-x-1956 16-iv-2015) | British Chess News

April 16, 2021

[…] An obituary from Kingpin Magazine […]
→ Commenting on: Colin Crouch, 1956-2015

Cameron

April 8, 2021

Looks like it's worth a read. Although a patzer, I've never had the view that memorising openings and drilling tactics…
→ Commenting on: Self-help

Happy 75th Birthday IM Mike Basman (16-iii-1946) | British Chess News

March 16, 2021

[…] Confessions of a Crooked Chess Master – Part 1 from Kingpin […]
→ Commenting on: Confessions of a Crooked Chess Master – Part 1

11

January 22, 2021

"What is the purpose of FIDE?" heh that was funny
→ Commenting on: King of the Coffee House

10 Seconds with 7
About Us 1
Archive 224
- April 11
- August 14
- December 5
- February 7
- January 10
- July 14
- June 9
- March 8
- May 12
- November 16
- October 7
- September 7
Articles 97
Back issues 47
Cheating 25
Creative chess 89
Features 209
FIDE 49
Front Page 106
Games 87
Hack Attack 52
History scrapbook 132
Homepage 109
Interviews 40
Kirsan 43
Letters 9
Nosher 10
Private Eye 4
Quotes 128
Reviews 90
Shop 29
The Penguin Files 38
- Books, journalism, plagiarism 23
- Brain Games 5
- Penguin profiles 10
The Poisoned Pawn 6
Uncategorized 1

"He made everybody feel more alive" Hugh Alexander was born on this day in 1908. t.co/pjyi21DcY5… t.co/6YZZSD429v • 4 Days via Hootsuite Inc.
“Through chess he expressed his thoughts; through singing, his emotions.” t.co/NjX1i7ljk8 • 5 Days via Twitter Web App
Smyslov the singer. t.co/iRamy1Myrb • 5 Days via Twitter Web App
Smyslov the boxer. Gligorić and Wade, The World Chess Championship (Batsford, 1972), p.15. t.co/nMU8iIfZGH • 5 Days via Hootsuite Inc.
The billionaire investing in chess. t.co/Sex3SWKBnG • 7 Days via Twitter for iPad

Follow @kingpined on twitter.