2021-03-02 17:12
Art, craft, and design: these teasing, shape-shifting categories were seen in Chess in Art XI in the industrial scale marquetry of Alan Boileau. They were at work, too, in Jaime Hayón… Read More
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Updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday ... and maybe other days too.
2016-03-14 12:03
Reti-RubinsteinKarlsbad, 192315. Qa1! This is a an obvious move, isn't it? It's obvious to you. It's obvious to me, now. But it wasn't obvious to me when I was shown it as a child, and the t… Read More
2016-03-14 07:51
Just a quick addendum on the British Chess Club of Paris while Part 5 is still hot off the press and fresh in the memory, and before the series disappears from view to find its final resting… Read More
2016-03-12 12:22
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on- The Rubaiyat of Omar KhayyamI was looking for a theme for today's post, and nearly picked the one that we used yesterday, since it's not… Read More
2016-03-10 07:55
On this day, 2005.Far too soon and yet not a moment too late. A far better chess player than he will ever be anything else and yet a far better chess player than almost anybody else.There'll… Read More
2016-03-09 17:41
If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change- Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, The LeopardRay, Saturday:Did Ray actually make it to the Varsity Match this year? Not as far… Read More
2016-03-08 20:26
The first part of this series introduced the British Chess Club of Paris that was founded in 1926. It remained active until the declaration of war in 1939 brought the curtain down on much ch… Read More
2016-03-08 20:25
In the first post on this series about the long-forgotten British Chess Club of Paris (1926 to 1938/9) we looked at some of the personalities involved in its activities. Part 2 looked at its… Read More
2016-03-08 20:25
So far in this series we have tracked the fortunes of the British Chess Club of Paris (1926 to 1938/9) and some of its more famous, and infamous, members. In this final post we continue to d… Read More
2016-03-08 20:25
In this series we have tracked the fortunes of the British Chess Club of Paris and its members for the 12 years or so up to its demise when war was declared in 1939 (though the serious fight… Read More
2016-03-07 08:00
WARNING: This post contains spoilersYou know this one. The Thomas Crown Affair and From Russia With Love might be classics, but when it comes to chess in film, The Seventh Seal is the d… Read More
2016-03-06 09:55
The most honoured man there was Geoffrey Young, an Eton master, and the President of the Climbers' Club. His four closest friends had all been killed climbing; a comment on the extraordinary… Read More
2016-03-03 07:55
So now the Carlsen v Candidates-winner world championship match has been set up, how many people are going to watch it?605 million, perhaps?Not at all.More.This many.And why not? After all… Read More
2016-03-02 17:52
Writing about the Accelerated Dragon the other day jogged my memory where my one-time favourite Sicilian, the Scheveningen, was concerned. The Scheveningen was the Sicilian variation that fi… Read More
2016-03-01 07:55
I often remark that after you reach the age of forty, it becomes impossible to distinguish satire from reality. Once you turn fifty, even more so.So I find myself unable to make sense of thi… Read More
2016-02-29 08:00
Philosophers have discussed at great length the ultimate goal, if any, of mankind, but they have reached no consensus, for that is the nature of philosophy. To be rational, a goal for mankin… Read More
2016-02-26 09:05
Apologies to our French readers: "chesseurs" is probably as maladroit in French as "chessers" is - strictly speaking - in English. But it is so much simpler than "joueurs aux échecs"… Read More
2016-02-25 08:24
When we were discussing Reti's 15. Qa1 yesterday, we observed that Fine, annotating the move in The World's Great Chess Games, quoted Hans Kmoch.What we left until today to observe is that w… Read More
2016-02-24 10:24
Reti-RubinsteinKarlsbad, 192315. Qa1! This is a an obvious move, isn't it? It's obvious to you. It's obvious to me, now. But it wasn't obvious to me when I was shown it as a child, and the t… Read More
2016-02-22 08:00
Here’s a post that’s long and pointless: a theoretical survey on an opening that nobody bothers with these days. I’m not even going to be looking at the current state of wh… Read More
2016-02-21 11:05
Alan Curtis, Il Complesso Barocco, Handel: Lotario (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 2011)[via Richard James][Cover version index] Read More
2016-02-20 20:37
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6The Accelerated Dragon. Never remotely as popular as its allegedly slower cousin, but as far as I recall I've never played that version at all, almos… Read More
2016-02-19 18:41
Lord Avebury is dead. I think I missed that at the time, or I'd forgotten about it since, but I had a look around and as per usual, having gone searching for something on the internet I foun… Read More
2016-02-15 12:04
White to playI was leafing through an old chess magazine the other day. I came across a piece by Jacob Aagaard on what was then the new edition of Chess Tactics from Scratch. The origi… Read More
2016-02-10 08:05
Yuck. Naturally one hopes that everybody checked their envelopes carefully to make sure there wasn't five hundred quid missing, as is traditional with Ray and tournaments on the Mediterranea… Read More
2016-02-09 10:23
Faye’s game wouldn’t pass the Rudd Test "Why doesn’t it rain indoors?" That’s a pretty good question if you think about it. Especially when it comes from a boy i… Read More
2016-02-06 09:55
Exit Crockett.Do read, as suggested, his own statement, for its entertainment value alone. Among the various nonsenses, we can find one comment at least which I think I can endorse without q… Read More
2016-02-03 07:55
I was pleased to read this.What precisely it means may not be entirely clear, but I'd hope to be reading it right if I assume that somebody will finally be looking into the curious case of S… Read More
2016-02-02 07:55
Congratulations to Stephen Crockettwho has returned to the circuit and picked up second prize in the Nottingham Rapidplay, under-135 sectionoutpacing twenty higher-graded players to do so.[C… Read More
2016-02-02 03:44
Players on the British tournament circuit compete not only for the prizes and trophies in the particular tournaments they enter, but also for the Grand Prix, a system by which players accumu… Read More
2016-02-01 08:00
Before I get going, may I issue a quick reminder to some of our readers that we have a deal.That said, here’s the From Russia With Love chess scene. As usual with movie-chess there are… Read More
2016-01-31 14:12
Yesterday we were discussing Stephen Crockett, who, although his results in the competition over a number of years have caused a deal of controversy, has been made controller of the ECF's Gr… Read More
2016-01-31 10:20
Considering the question of the 26-losses-and-a-draw sequence suffered by Stephen Crockett, whose curious playing record we have been looking at this past week, it occurred to me that we hav… Read More
2016-01-31 08:12
In the previous two pieces in this series we've been looking with scepticism at the playing record of Stephen Crockett, four-time Grand Prix champion and winner of numerous tournaments, rece… Read More
2016-01-25 10:52
This week the movies come to chess. A reversal of our usual procedures.Specifically, I’ll be asking what the current "Oscars Diversity Row" tells us about our game in En… Read More
2016-01-25 08:23
Apologies to our French readers: "chesseurs" is probably as maladroit in French as "chessers" is - strictly speaking - in English. But it is so much simpler than "joueurs aux échecs"… Read More
2016-01-24 09:55
Certainly not when they said it was. Chess is not banned in Saudi Arabia, and certainly not last Wednesday, or as we called it last Wednesday, "today". Well, everybody makes mistakes. Still… Read More
2016-01-20 10:10
Here's some interesting archive footage I was passed by Jon Manley. I can't embed it here, as far as I can see, but click on the link and watch the video - it's only three minutes of your ti… Read More
2016-01-18 08:00
Chess has been going to the movies a fair bit of late (see Cgttm: The Hateful Eight) so now seems like as good a time as any to have a look back at some of the classics. We’ll start th… Read More
2016-01-17 09:55
Ivan's Chess Journey: games and stories, Sokolov, Thinkers, 2016[Bad book covers index] Read More
2016-01-15 15:30
Michael Bible's Sophia is "contemporary fiction" - as of 2015. It might be your cup of tea. It must be someone's. He's from North Carolina it says. "Originally." Where now, we aren't to… Read More
2016-01-15 11:11
In the previous - also unplanned - episode 6 of this Played on Squares sequence we took the opportunity to examine the Social Chess Quarterly and the Empire Social Chess… Read More
2016-01-13 10:51
I found it hard to write anything for today. You'd think I'd be fresh after the Xmas break, bubbling with new ideas and all, but truth is I wasn't, at least not until Nigel popped up at the… Read More
2016-01-11 14:42
Posted by Martin SmithThere has been rather a drought of new chess-art in the recent period, so it's good to be able to get another look at Anwar Jalal Shemza (1929-1985), who popped up with… Read More
2016-01-11 08:00
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Not the most original way to begin, I grant you, but as far as chess going to the movies is concerned, that’s exactly how things we… Read More
2016-01-10 10:02
It's.......Nigel!Who else?Poor old Nigel. People just can't help being horrid to him. Especially women. There was a woman on NZ television... calling me a twat...does she know what a twat is… Read More
2016-01-06 08:00
Because we didn’t spend enough of the last fortnight stuffing our faces Read More
2016-01-01 18:48
The rules of "The Greatest Tournament in Chess History," the USD 20 million Sheldrake Memorial Tournament, a.k.a. Los Voraces 2019, are: no seconds, no agents, no computers, no entourages, n… Read More
2016-01-01 18:43
The Pete Rugolo Orchestra: Rugolo Plays Kenton (Capitol, 1958).[Cover version index][Thanks to Stewart Reuben] Read More
2016-01-01 09:24
Chess is played by hundreds of millions people [sic] worldwide (according to Yougov, the British market research firm)Not so much "according to YouGov", more "according to Dylan Loeb McClain… Read More
2015-12-30 20:45
Leonard Barden needs your help.I have been lodging in a house in Sydenham, South London, for the past ten years. A few weeks ago my landlord told me that he was selling up due to mortgage pr… Read More
2015-12-28 12:35
Ray's Times column for 17 November was about an iffy line of the Tarrasch French.He's right, I think: even the UK's foremost French player has struggled in that line. I played it myself, onc… Read More
2015-12-24 07:55
Jon says:It's the testudo again!Take it slow over the holidays.[More testudo][Testudo formation][Tortoise] Read More
2015-12-23 07:55
El País, 29 November 2015: If you've followed the news in the last couple of days you'll probably have read a little bit, some of it possibly accurate, about Podemos, Pablo Iglesias a… Read More
2015-12-22 07:55
Guo-Kjartansson, London Chess Classic Open, round two, 5 December 2015.Position after 51...Rb1-b2+.From Chess Today 5508 by way of Angus French. White, outrated by several hundred Elo points… Read More
2015-12-21 08:00
They first meet as ten-year-old chess prodigies - both lonely, intent on winning, both wearing the symbol of the gold coiled serpent. They know the uses of pleasure, the secrets of pain, the… Read More
2015-12-14 08:00
I remember John. I played him in my sixth ever rated game. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but I joined Chelmsford Chess Club after the third of the Kasparov - Karpov matches … Read More
2015-12-10 16:25
So, Polgar reckons 700 million? Kirsan can do better!Any advance?[605 million index] Read More
2015-12-08 08:00
The Times8th December 1977Disapproving of chessFrom Mr Ian K. MaconochieSir, I read with surprise Bernard Levin’s statement in his article on chess (November 21) [sic – JB] that… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Streatham and Brixton Chessers were out in force last Saturday setting out their stall at the gala re-opening of Streatham Library/Community hub after its refurb. It is where we will be runn… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Streatham and Brixton Chess Club will be running a rapidplay tournament on Sunday 13th April - venue Streatham Library - to coincide with the opening of Lambeth's newly renovated community h… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Times chess column March 20You might get the impression from the above that when it hasn't been a free day, the Times chess column has been following the Candidates Tournament in Khanty-Mans… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Anybody spotted the chess revival that was supposed to take place after Magnus Carlsen won the title last year? Me neither, but perhaps we were looking in the wrong direction. One Anand blun… Read More
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