‘No game has bred more metaphors than chess, the royal game. Indeed, no game has a literature a thousandth the size of it. That is not really surprising; from the moment the board is set up, chess mimics humankind in countless ways. War, cunning, power,…
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Today marks the 150th birthday of Harold James Ruthven Murray (1868–1955), best known for his A History of Chess, published in 1913. The fruits of fourteen years of research, this monumental work of scholarship has been described as ‘perhaps the most important chess book in English’…
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Although Steinitz was celebrated for his play without sight of the board, barely two dozen of his blindfold games survive. In February 1875 he visited Oxford to give a blindfold exhibition over seven boards. He won four, lost one, with two games left unfinished. It…
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For more on the colourful life (and bizarre death) of Oxford University Chess Club President Harold Davidson see The Dabbler and Chess Notes. Source: ‘Miscellaneous papers relating to the Oxford University Chess Club, c.1870-’, Bodleian Library, Oxford. With thanks to Richard James.
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Jimmy Adams In The Treasury of Chess Lore, compiled by Fred Reinfeld, a long time ago I read an article ‘Recollections of Alekhine’ by Harry Golombek, which included the following sensational revelation: ‘. . . I was the editor of the book Alekhine wrote…
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‘Hugh had been in London and at John Lewis’s for only about a year when we were overtaken by the war which changed all our lives. In September 1939 the British team for the International Team Tournament, consisting of Sir George Thomas, Alexander, Harry Golombek,…
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Poignant news from thirty years ago. Poignant because this month marks the sixteenth anniversary of Tony Miles’ premature death. The reasons for his defection became clearer four years after this story appeared when the Sunday Times published Nick Pitt’s investigation. Sharing the front page of a…
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A Cultural History of Chess-Players: Minds, machines and monsters John Sharples ix + 225 pages | hardback | £75.00 Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017 Sarah Hurst John Sharples goes far beyond the conventional and off into another dimension in his…
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