my latest books
"Re-Engineering the Chess Classics"
Nominated for the 2023 Chess.com Book of the Year
"The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement"
"Game Changer" won the ECF Book of the Year 2019 and the FIDE Book of the Year 2019
The Lasker-Marshall rivalry – Part 5. Lasker’s struggle against the Exchange Slav
The last game in this series was a Marshall near-miss: the exciting game where Marshall was White against Lasker in New York 1924. The game featured an Exchange Slav – a favourite of Marshall’s (“A capture I have favoured throughout my career, and with very good results”) which was later taken up with great success read more…
The Lasker-Marshall rivalry – Part 4. Marshall against the QGD Tarrasch
One intriguing thing during the match was how much Lasker varied his repertory as Black against 1.d4. The 3 games he played with his own Lasker variation in the Queen’s Gambit Declined (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 Ne4) netted him 2.5 points out of 3 games and some pretty good positions read more…
The Lasker-Marshall rivalry – Part 3
The World Championship Match of 1907 played in the US was a complete disaster for Frank Marshall as he was defeated by eight wins to none with 7 draws. In “Marshall’s Best Games of Chess”, Marshall doesn’t even mention the match taking place which probably indicates just how much the match affected him. Despite the read more…
The Lasker-Marshall rivalry – Part 2
After winning their first encounter, Frank Marshall had to wait another 40 years to defeat Emanuel Lasker! This game was played 6 months before Lasker’s death at an exhibition match played next to the 1940 US Championship. It was a very interesting game with a fraught tactical episode on the 23rd move. I think that read more…
"The secret of my success: with every move I force the opponent to think for themselves!"
- Alexander Alekhine
about
I am a Chess Grandmaster and writer, and one of England's top players. When I am not doing my job as an IT Consultant, I fill my free time with as much chess as possible
my work
Writing and discussing chess has always been one of my passions. I review chess books in a regular column for New in Chess magazine and have written 8 books myself. I also contribute to chess videos regularly.
contact me
I hope that you enjoy the site. I will enrich its content over time and would love to hear what you think. Let me know whether there are any topics you would like me to cover in my blog.
"How many moves do I consider when analysing? Only one, but it's always the best one!"
- Emanuel Lasker
