‘the best chess contains a striving not just for victory but for something beyond: for an ideal harmonious state that produces a perfect mixture of creativity, beauty and power.’ Julian Barnes, ‘TDF: The World Chess Championship’ The New Yorker (December 1993) reproduced in Letters…
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Colin Crouch, who has died at the tragically young age of 58, had a magnificently mischievous sense of humour. He contributed several pieces to Kingpin, serious and funny, and wrote one of the wittiest parodies of a chess writer you are likely to read. An affable,…
Read MoreGIGGLESWICK Arkell, K.C. Avni, A. Fry, S. Hartston, W.R. Lane, G.W. Miles, A.J. Seirawan, Y. Tartakower, S. GORING Giddins, S. Horton, E.J. Hurst, S. Urcan, O.G. Winter, E.G. GREAT HAM Ashley, M. HOPE END Kasparov, G.K. Leong, I. Mooi, C.J….
Read MoreMichael Basman International Intrigue It was Hastings 1967-8 at the annual congress run by Frank Rhoden. I had not been doing particularly well after having bullied Frank into giving me a place in the tournament. ‘I’ve got to invite Keene, Hartston and Penrose,…
Read MoreMichael Basman The Slippery Slope My first step along the road to perdition came in the London Under-14 Boys Championship in 1959 (in those days girls didn’t or couldn’t play chess). It was round 5 and I was playing J.N. Eyres of Colfe’s School…
Read More‘Men and women’s brains are hard-wired very differently, so why should they function in the same way? I don’t have the slightest problem in acknowledging that my wife possesses a much higher degree of emotional intelligence than I do. Likewise, she doesn’t feel embarrassed…
Read MoreYasser Seirawan became World Junior Champion in 1979 and was twice a candidate for the World Championship title. He is currently commentating on the US Chess Championship, an event he has won four times. Kingpin interviewed him in 1998. What is your earliest memory of…
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Gary Kenworthy
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S.B. Cohen
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