Looking through old albums for pictures for the website photo gallery put me into a nostalgic mood. Some games in your career take on almost mythical proportions in your mind. One such game is my game against J Thomson in the 1984 Thanet Major. I was very young – just 10 at the time – …

Just recently, I came across a couple of interesting posts about Alekhine. Have you ever wondered how the 4th World Champion sounded, and how he moved the pieces? Take a look at these links! On the chess24.com Community page: 1938 radio interview with Alexander Alekhine On the Chessbase.com site: Rare film footage of Alexander Alekhine …

For the section on Keith Arkell’s rook endings in my new book “Chess for Life” (co-authored with WIM Natasha Regan) I played through more than 300 of Keith’s rook endings. A heroic effort I hope you agree! The effort seems to have rubbed off on my play – I’ve had more rook endings than ever …

One of the things that made Alekhine very frightening to play against was his inventiveness in the openings. His particular forte was provoking quick crises in solid-looking 1.d4 openings. Alekhine was a master at forcing the opponent to solve concrete problems an at unexpectedly early moment in the game. Without the buffer of modern opening …

A day late on my site, but still heartfelt. A post to mark the 70th anniversary of Alexander Alekhine’s death. During a visit to Paris a couple of summers ago, I made a trip to the beautiful Cimetière du Montparnasse to visit his grave. I took a chessboard with me on which Kasparov had once …