Saturday 27th February was a memorable day! A knock at the door of my parents’ house and a few moments later, I had a copy of “Chess for Life” in my hands for the first time – such a proud moment! Natasha and I first discussed the idea for the book during the Summer of 2014, and we started working in earnest in August 2014. The book took us both about a year to complete: we delivered the manuscript to Gambit on 29th July 2015. We’re both really happy with the result so we hope you will be too. Don’t forget to check out the series of Videos we’ve created – available through the Videos gallery on this website – to expand and supplement the ideas in the book!
I have celebrated World Book Day by buying Chess For Life, which was delivered this morning, a couple of reasons ‘persuaded’ me to go for this particular book. I am 56 years old and although still enjoying chess as much as ever seem to be in a ditch as far as improvement goes. This is somewhat health related but I am convinced that there is a path to help me improve a little and I am sure that this tome will be a good stimulant. The other factor that attracted me to the book is that wiser folk than I have often stated that much can be gained from a loss and in my distant past I have played ( and been beaten by) both of the authors, Matthew at the Charlton Chess Congress and Natasha at the Maidstone Congress, so in a very minute way I feel that I have also contributed to the book 🙂
Have just started the Pia Cramling chapter, the book is looking like being an excellent read – thank you
Hi Trefor. Thanks for your comment – you’re the very first person to leave a comment on this site! Really glad you’re enjoying the book so far – hope it helps to get you improving again! Perhaps the most interesting chapter from that point of view is the interview with Terry Chapman. Terry has been incredibly creative in thinking up ways to train himself and had lots of good tips and insights! Best Wishes Matthew and Natasha
Hello again, I made sure that I read the Terry Chapman chapter, in fact I read the Terry Chapman and Jon Speelman chapters in one sitting, and found them extremely illuminating. This really is one of the most thought provoking chess books I have read in a long time.
Yesterday I, very quickly, browsed the chapter on Tiviakov’s 3… Qd6 and armed with nothing more than the first 4 moves I played the idea, for the first time, in a club match that afternoon. Despite making a wrong 5th move and giving away 25 points (ECF) I gained a fairly comfortable draw and would have played on for a win had my health been better ( I have been off work since Christmas following a major Meniere’s attack. )
So once again thank you both for a really excellent book, I cannot wait to read the rest of the book and then spend some time going over the analysis on a board
I shall be recommending the book to anyone willing to listen!
Hi Trefor, so glad to hear that! We interviewed Terry and Jon on the same afternoon and it inspired us both too – we spent the whole evening discussing what they’d told us! So happy Tiviakov’s chapter helped too – one of our goals for the book was that people should also be able to take some of the openings we discuss and just use them in their own games! If you’re a 1.d4 player with White then both the chapters on Pia Cramling and Keith Arkell can also be interesting. I hope your health keeps improving, and many thanks again for your kind comments. It really gives us a boost and makes us feel all those long periods writing the book after work have been worthwhile! Best Wishes, Matthew and Natasha