my latest books
"Re-Engineering the Chess Classics"
Nominated for the 2023 Chess.com Book of the Year
"The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement"
"Game Changer" won the ECF Book of the Year 2019 and the FIDE Book of the Year 2019
Explaining complex tactics – Part 2
In this second blog about the wonderful Stockfish-Torch game, we take a look at an amazing alternative on move 26! 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Ne2 Be7 9. c3 a5 10. dxc5 a4 11. Qc2 O-O 12. O-O-O read more…
Explaining complex tactics – Part 1
As I’m sure you all know, I’m constantly running engine matches on my cloud machines on all manner of chess topics. Occasionally, I come across a game of which I understand so little that it shocks me! This was the case with this Stockfish-Torch 15”+5’ game played about a week ago. 1. e4 e6 2. read more…
Grandmaster vs Duolingo! (or Oscar!)
Duolingo is something of a family addiction so I was very excited to see chess added to the Duolingo menu! One nice feature of the course is the ability to play a game against Duo, or rather Oscar to be precise! Even more thrillingly, you gain 50XP by doing so (even 150 XP during a read more…
The wizard’s knack of being just in time!
In my last blog post, I left you with 2 intriguing middlegames which the engines assessed as dead equal and yet would only be the start of hostilities in a human game! I spent some time looking at these positions and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. Let’s start off with this one: read more…
"The secret of my success: with every move I force the opponent to think for themselves!"
- Alexander Alekhine
about
I am a Chess Grandmaster and writer, and one of England's top players. When I am not doing my job as an IT Consultant, I fill my free time with as much chess as possible
my work
Writing and discussing chess has always been one of my passions. I review chess books in a regular column for New in Chess magazine and have written 8 books myself. I also contribute to chess videos regularly.
contact me
I hope that you enjoy the site. I will enrich its content over time and would love to hear what you think. Let me know whether there are any topics you would like me to cover in my blog.
"How many moves do I consider when analysing? Only one, but it's always the best one!"
- Emanuel Lasker
