May 3, 2020
Matthew Sadler
7 comments
Another 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 –…
May 1, 2020
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
A few months ago, my friend and former coach Steve Giddins decided to sell the greater part of his fantastic chess book collection. My tiny flat is already creaking under the weight of the review copies I receive every month from New in Chess, but I purchased the maximum I could fit in! One excellent…
February 1, 2019
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
The 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 21, 2019
Matthew Sadler
3 comments
One intriguing thing during the match was how much Lasker varied his repertory as Black against 1.d4. The 3 games he played with his own Lasker variation in the Queen’s Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 Ne4) netted him 2.5 points out of 3 games and some pretty good positions…
January 17, 2019
Matthew Sadler
No comments exist
The 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…