Chess for Life on Tour! Richmond and Twickenham Chess Club

May 6, 2016 Matthew Sadler 2 comments

Yesterday, Natasha and I kicked off the “Chess for Life” promotion tour with an evening lecture at the Richmond and Twickenham Chess Club. We started off proceedings with a theme from Capablanca’s games – “Linked Knights” – and then showed how Capablanca’s arch-rival Alekhine made use of a turbo-charged version of the same theme to win 2 fantastic games!

 

Matthew explains the theme of compactness while demonstrating Capablanca-Sergeant Hastings 1929. Photo by kind permission of Richard James
Matthew explains the theme of compactness while demonstrating Capablanca-Sergeant Hastings 1929. Photo by kind permission of Richard James

 

Natasha then went on to give a masterclass on “How to play like Keith Arkell!” illustrated with 2 recent games of Keith’s. Natasha showed how all the key elements of Keith’s play – described in “Chess for Life” – were also to be seen in Keith’s latest games. Everyone knows Keith of course, so there were a lot of interested questions from the audience!

 

Natasha shows off the final position of Arkell-Shaw British Championship 2014. Photo by kind permission of Richard James
Natasha shows off the final position of Arkell-Shaw British Championship 2014. Photo by kind permission of Richard James

 

After a little break for coffee, delicious biscuits and an opportunity to buy the book, I then rounded off with some 5-minute simultaneous blitz. At some stage we managed to have 6 games going on with me rushing around trying to make all my moves! Amazingly I didn’t lose a single game on time!

 

Matthew takes on Christopher Kreuzer and Nette Robinson at 5-min simultaneous blitz! Photo by kind permission of Richard James.
Matthew takes on Christopher Kreuzer and Nette Robinson at 5-min simultaneous blitz! Photo by kind permission of Richard James.

 

Many thanks to all the people who came along, and thanks especially to Christopher Kreuzer for organising the whole event and making us feel so welcome!

 

 

2 Comments on “Chess for Life on Tour! Richmond and Twickenham Chess Club

  1. Thak goodness my position is largely hidden behind the clock in that photo!
    Many thanks to you both for an excellent evening and a really fabulous and original book.
    Thank you too for the video and ChessBase links relating to the material in your book. I look forward to seeing those!

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