October 29, 2021
Matthew Sadler
6 comments
For any author it’s a wonderful moment to see a new book published, and that happened to me a week ago with the launch of “The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement” (New in Chess). The book explains many new and original ways to use engines for training, and distills opening and middlegame strategies from the greatest and most spectacular engine games played in recent years.
March 10, 2017
Matthew Sadler
8 comments
After my series on 6-times British Champion F.D. Yates, my friend Steve Giddins suggested that I look at the games of one of the 2 players to have exceeded Yates’ record of British Championships: H.E. Atkins (1872-1955), 9-times British Champion (as Steve Giddins pointed out, Jonathan Penrose is the record-holder with 10 victories between 1958…
December 8, 2016
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
When you’re near there’s such an air of Spring about it I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it There’s no love song finer but how strange The change from major to minor Every time we say goodbye Cole Porter, “Ev’ry time we say goodbye” Well that’s what I thought of…
October 6, 2016
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
Watching Mihai’s Marin analysis of Karpov’s middlegame skills on a recent Chessbase DVD has been a wonderful learning experience. Marin identified a facet of Karpov’s play that I had never noticed before: moving the same piece many times in succession. After this manoeuvre, no one knows why, but he’s better! Marin cites many examples. This…
September 29, 2016
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
In 1932, Bogoljubov and Spielmann played a 10-game match in Semmering, Austria which Spielmann edged 5,5-4,5. In his biography of Bogoljubov, Soloviov is dismissive of the match, stating “…after [Bogoljubov] won the first two games, he failed to press home a huge advantage in the third game and then he blundered a piece in game 4….