Jonathan Rowson A polished pine bedroom in a convent school, Tallinn, Estonia, September 1997. A bottle of whisky, unpacked suitcases, and three drunken chess players playing blitz. Andrew Martin, Simon Williams, Jonathan Rowson. And, our invisible friend, ‘The Spirit’. It is intriguing. It is intriguing…
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Olaf Steffens Long ago in Ancient Greece the Olympic Games were invented to celebrate all sports. In the searing heat men would wrestle, run and throw the discus, sometimes even stark naked. Then they would take a break and meet again four years later to compete…
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Andrew Whiteley, who has died aged 67, belonged to the generation of players who ushered in the ‘English Chess Explosion’ of the late 1970s. Most of them cut their teeth as students at either Oxford (Botterill, Lee, Markland, Whiteley) or Cambridge (Hartston, Keene, Stean, Williams)….
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We are sure that readers will have come across humorist Stephen Fry. A few months ago, the star of Blackadder, Saturday Night Live, the Comic Strip and numerous radio programmes was interviewed on television. In the background on his bookshelves was a copy of Batsford…
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Jonathan Rogers There are many ways in which chess literature suffers from the fact that the game is not a recognised academic study. Take, for example, the imprecision of our terminology; we all use various chess words but seem to mean different things when doing…
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You’ve read his books and improved your chess. You’ve absorbed the wisdom of his Kingpin agony column and become a better person. Now listen to one of the most engaging characters in British chess talk about his life as a professional player, coach and writer….
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The Oxford professor who helped expose JK Rowling’s secret identity as crime writer Robert Galbraith is an International Correspondence Grandmaster. Peter Millican, an expert in computer linguistics, told the BBC: ‘I was given some text by The Sunday Times – I had two known texts…
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Anna Muzychuk was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2012 and is ranked 4th among the world’s best women players. Born in Lvov on 28 February 1990, she has represented Slovenia in team competitions since 2004. Her younger sister Mariya is an International Master. What is…
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Emil is one of the most inventive and flamboyant players in the world. Renowned for his romantic playing style and brilliant sacrificial attacks, he will be describing some of his best games exclusively for Kingpin. Emil was born in Baku on 19 September 1977. He…
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Kingpin has had sight of an e-mail message addressed earlier this week to UK chess magazine and website editors. Presumably it refers to the Streatham & Brixton Chess blog.
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