I’ve been enjoying reading through Tibor Karolyi’s 3-volume Best Games Collection of Mikhail Tal and especially the 3rd volume dealing with Tal’s later games (1972-1992). I love those later games: Tal’s style is a wonderful blend of the swashbuckling attacking with which he stormed the pinnacle of the chess world with some smooth positional play …

This week, I made some more good use of my return to the UK by playing some Tuesday evening blitz after work in the Sam Black Memorial Open Blitz in Wanstead, London. Professor Sam Black is a former chairman of the North London League and this tournament was set up in his memory when he …

The top British players F.D. Yates and Sir George Thomas played many games against each other during their careers. Chessbase gives a total score of 12 wins, 12 draws and 9 losses for Sir George Thomas out of a total of 33 games, starting in 1918 and finishing in 1932, the year of Yates’ death. …

This interesting game doesn’t even make it into Tibor Karolyi’s 3-volume biography of Mikhail Tal, or even in Mikhail Tal’s own collection of Best Games! I found it in “The Complete Manual of Positional Chess, Opening and Middlegame” by Sakaev and Landa, in a chapter entitled “Do not leave the king in the centre”. Good …

I came across the following game in the Illustrated London News of April 26th, 1930 under the heading “USA Naval SS Baffled” and the concluding sentence “This should ‘larn’ the Americans to steal our naval secrets”! Intrigued, I looked at the game which was indeed spectacular.  It was played in the London – Washington Cable …