A few days ago, I went round to a neighbour to pick up a parcel that had been left there for me. I happened to mention that it was probably some chess books and was surprised when my neighbour said “Chess? Oh the father of a friend of mine was a good chess player. I …

Bogolyubow’s preparation for the World Championship match was to take part in the strong Carlsbad event of 1929 in which he came 8th with 11,5 / 21 (Nimzowitsch won with 15/21). He lost a superior ending (2R & 2Bs vs 2Rs & 2Ns) with Black in the last game against Becker in the 21st round …

The “Chess for Life” tour continued at the Casual Chess Café on 17th June. The Casual Chess Café meets in the lobby of the British Film Institute near Tottenham Court Road which is a truly lovely venue. Comfortable chairs, nice food and plenty of drinks from the bar!   After a little blitz to warm …

I recently managed to get hold of a copy of the 1930 book “Games Played in the World’s Championship Match between Alexander Alekhine and E. D. Bogolyubow” with annotations by F.D Yates and W. Winter.   It’s one of those World Championship matches that I’ve never paid much attention to. The final score of 15,5-9,5 …

While writing some recent blog articles on rook and pawn endgames, I made use of a couple of very useful endgame tools. They are probably well-known to everyone, but just in case…   Online 6-man Nalimov Tablebases   Enter any 6-man endgame – for example K,R & P vs K,R & P – and see …