A recent radio broadcast examined the history of chess on the BBC. Between 1958 and 1964 there were regular chess programmes on the Third Network (now Radio 3), a mixture of essays, interviews and games. Contributors included Alexander, Barden, Euwe, Fischer, Gligoric and Golombek. Some…
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When you eavesdrop on the chatter of chess, you discover that it reproduces and confirms the game’s compelling mixture of violence and intellectuality. As pieces are finger-flipped around demonstration boards in swift refutation of some other grandmaster’s naïve proposition, half the language has a street-fighting…
Read MoreTalent and youth, bright middle-class children with psychopathic tendencies – that’s what’s needed for success at tournament chess; with the emphasis on youth. And so their mums send them forth with the Spartan mother’s warning: come back victorious or don’t come back at all. Well,…
Read More“An evil man who is not going to be missed. Thoroughly corrupt persecutor of those who wanted chess to move forward. Destroyer of our beloved World Championship. Some champagne with dinner tonight to wish him good riddance!” Eric Schiller’s moving eulogy to the former FIDE…
Read MoreMax Euwe makes the first move in Browne v Karpov (Amsterdam 1976) Tony Miles’ 1…a6 is not the worst insult Karpov has suffered during a game. Four years earlier Walter Browne showed his utter contempt for the World Champion by arriving at the board in…
Read MoreThis is one of the best chess books published in recent years. Perceptive, instructive, rich in anecdote and self-deprecating humour, Chess Duels is a candid and entertaining tour of elite chess and its leading personalities.
Read MoreNTBCM was a funny spoof magazine edited by Murray Chandler. Borrowing the format of its venerable target, NTBCM published only one issue (in 1984), an entertaining mix of strange games, jokes and witty articles such as ‘How Weird Is Your Chess’ by Jon Speelman,…
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Gary Kenworthy
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