© Thomas family collection This is the earliest known photograph of George Thomas (later Sir George). It was taken in Southsea in September 1895 when George was 14 years old. A few weeks earlier he had been a spectator at the great Hastings tournament where…
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What is your earliest memory of playing chess? I went up to Selfridges with my dad and we bought a wooden set for 10s. 6d. He taught us to play chess that evening. I remember him showing us the knight move. What is…
Read MoreMichael Basman Editor’s note: What is striking about these games is how each highlights different aspects of Mike’s playing style. As you might expect, there is his calling card – the outlandish opening 1 e4 g5 (‘totally bonkers’ –Nigel Short), but next is an epic…
Read MoreTwo remarkable players, Sultan Khan (1905–1966) and Victor Soultanbéieff (1895–1972), met at the International Team Tournament at Folkestone in 1933. Sultan Khan, one of the game’s most naturally gifted stars, represented the British Empire, and Soultanbéieff his adoptive country, Belgium. In a dazzlingly short career…
Read MoreThe chess boom triggered by the 1972 Fischer–Spassky match enthused many talented youngsters, especially in Britain. Boris Spassky became an early casualty of the fallout from the ‘English chess explosion’ when he took on a schoolboy squad over 30 boards in 1979. The event was…
Read MoreIn a recent Perpetual Chess Podcast the chess writer and translator Douglas Griffin pointed out how much fine chess literature is waiting to be translated into English; most of it is in Russian, as you might expect. Griffin has been mining Soviet chess archives for…
Read MoreHans 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…
Read MoreDEAR GARY I would like to bring to the attention of readers the old but entertaining tome Castling through the Ages: From 0-0-0 to 0-0. I would certainly recommend any aspiring player to seriously study this aspect of their game and try spectacular castling. I…
Read MoreUitumen – Lein Sochi, 1965 Black to play 12…h5!! A fine move, and the only good one. 13 fxe5 Bg4 14 Qb3 Qf2 15 Qxb7? It was better to play 15 Rd1, and if 15…Be2 only then 16 Qxb7. 15…Qxe1…
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Gary Kenworthy
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