May 3, 2020 Matthew Sadler 7 commentsAnother Steve Giddins book I’ve been getting into is the Best Games collection of Russian Grandmaster Ratmir Kholmov (1925-2006). Best known in the West for convincingly beating Bobby Fischer at Havana 1965 on the Black side of a Ruy Lopez, Kholmov is one of many extremely strong Russian players who – for whatever reason –…
February 1, 2019 Matthew Sadler 2 commentsThe last game in this series was a Marshall near-miss: the exciting game where Marshall was White against Lasker in New York 1924. The game featured an Exchange Slav – a favourite of Marshall’s (“A capture I have favoured throughout my career, and with very good results”) which was later taken up with great success…
January 17, 2019 Matthew Sadler No comments existThe World Championship Match of 1907 played in the US was a complete disaster for Frank Marshall as he was defeated by eight wins to none with 7 draws. In “Marshall’s Best Games of Chess”, Marshall doesn’t even mention the match taking place which probably indicates just how much the match affected him. Despite the…
May 8, 2018 Matthew Sadler 5 commentsIn the next few months, I am going to spend some time looking at the games of one of the strongest British players of the 1920s and 1930s, 2-times British Champion Sir George Thomas. It is strange that the British players of this period have attracted so little attention, when so many other long-forgotten players…
September 22, 2017 Matthew Sadler No comments existThe next instalment in our examination of my games from the ROC Nova College Open in July is my 4th round game, the 3rd game of a rather tiring Saturday! I was desperate to finish promptly and have an early night but as always in such cases, the exact opposite happened! As always, a playable…