Category: Chess
Posts on chess
Pirate Week
Three strange pirate-related things happened to me last week. Now there’s a sentence you don’t see every day. Admittedly, some of the links to buccaneering are a little tenuous, but it still makes for an unusual theme. It started when I found out about some trouble one of my German friends had gotten into. Having …
Before Thirty…One.
Two years ago, I wrote a post entitled “Before Thirty” in which I detailed plans to complete some of my life goals. One of them was to publish a book before my thirtieth birthday (by the way, I got to that handstand in the end). The book was to be a chess openings book, a guide …
Book review: Gelfand’s “Positional Decision-Making”
“Positional Decision-Making in Chess” – Boris Gelfand (and Jacob Aagaard) Quality Chess It’s rare that a chess book holds my attention well enough that I finish it in one sitting. It’s rarer still that I have the opportunity to review two such books in a row (see my last ‘Swamp’ review). This collaborative work between …
Magic chess
There’s so much chess going on at the moment that it’s hard to keep up. I’m not talking about Biel – for the most part, with the exception of the incredible Navara-Wojtaszek clash, it’s been pretty lacklustre – but rather the Politiken Cup and the British Championships. These are two huge European Opens and, most …
Book Review: Sergey Kasparov’s Swamp
“A Cunning Chess Opening For Black” – Sergey Kasparov New in Chess “Lure your opponent into the Philidor swamp!” promises the subheading on the book’s cover, accompanied by a ghastly green-and-brown photo of – literally – a swamp. A non-chess themed cover is already an unorthodox start for a chess book, but Sergey’s just …
A quick morning puzzle
A couple of months ago, I had a rare occasion to play against a fellow Australian in the 4NCL league match weekend in England. The Aussie in question is IM Justin Tan, an extremely talented young player who probably hasn’t received the attention he deserves for two reasons: (1) He shares exactly the same name …
A Chess Dispute
I can’t believe I haven’t come across this before. Over a century old, a minute’s worth of chess-related slapstick, and now I really want to buy a hat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sjoyeCtMF8
How to prove you’re not a chess cheater
The recent ‘cheating’ scandal at the European women’s chess championship is incredibly sad. This story stands apart from the recent ‘Georgian GM’ and Indian ‘phone legs’ incidents in that the accused, Mihaela Sandu, is almost certainly innocent. In the cold, hard light of day (or ‘ex post’, as us economists might say), the evidence clearly …
Book reviews: “Liquidation on the chessboard” and “Taimanov: The English Attack”
That title is pretty horrible, but I’m told it’s very “googleable”. Let’s go with that. I recently received three books from New in Chess. Two of them are your run-of-the-mill chess books: well written, somewhat typical and, simply, good books. No real surprises. The third, GM Sergey Kasparov’s ‘Swamp Book’, is really something different. I don’t …