December is a hectic time at work, but I always make time for a visit to the wonderful London Chess Classic. The Classic never disappoints. It’s a unique experience: a celebration of chess in all its forms based around a prestigious super-grandmaster tournament.   This year was particularly exciting as Natasha and I were presented …

November signals the start of the 4NCL season and I was in action on Board 1 for Guildford on the 19th & 20th November. I emerged with 2 wins from tough and fraught fights. The Saturday game featured an extremely sharp rook and knight ending which I analysed at some length with my friendly young …

A couple of months ago, I wrote a series of articles on King, Rook and Pawn vs King and Rook. In this article, I want to examine a couple of positions that show the practical application of the knowledge we learned. The practical value of building up a body of easily retrievable knowledge on K, …

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 …

I would like to finish this celebration of Yates’ play by taking a look at his handling of the King’s Indian Defence. In the article on Yates and Alekhine, we have already seen the fantastic win that Yates scored against Alekhine with this opening. That game featured his own approach in the King’s Indian of …