© 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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Adrian Harvey Steinitz in London A Chess Biography with 623 Games Tim Harding 421 pages | 84 photos | hardback | $75.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2020 For three reasons this reviewer regards Steinitz as the greatest chess player of all time. In the first…
Read MoreAdrian Harvey Chess Theory From Stamma to Steinitz, 1735–1894 Frank Hoffmeister Foreword by Peter Heine Nielsen 492 pages | 83 illustrations | 407 diagrams | softback | $99.00 Jefferson: McFarland, 2022 This is a very substantial work that embraces all the major developments…
Read MoreIn 1968, the American magazine Chess Review introduced Michael Basman as ‘another bright B’ in the tradition of famous British chess players represented by Bird, Blackburne and Burn. That’s some billing for a 21-year-old. Basman would never be the brightest chess star in this firmament…
Read MoreIn Memoriam Brian Eley (1946–2022) British Chess Champion, Suspected paedophile So. Farewell Then, Brian Eley, Fugitive chess master, Touch and move suspect, Reported to the BCF for alleged misconduct in 1979. Fifty years ago You were the British Chess Champion In Brighton. Thirty years…
Read MoreEley died in Amsterdam on 6 April 2022. 10 Seconds with Brian Eley Wikipedia: Brian Eley When a Man Disappears from an Interpol List: the Strange Case of Brian Eley
Read MoreThe first chess column to appear in a newspaper was published in the Liverpool Mercury on this day in 1813.
Read More“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…
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 MoreFred 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…
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