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
Lessons From The ROC Nova College Open 2017 – Part II
In this column, we continue our examination of episodes from the ROC Nova College Open in July. Going into the last round I was leading with 4,5 / 5 after a tightly-controlled win with Black against the second seed GM Maxim Turov. I had been expecting to play another GM but the pairing system threw read more…
Lessons from the ROC Nova College Open 2017 – Part I
In this column, we start to take a look at some interesting moments from the recent Nova College tournament in Haarlem which I managed to win for the 4th time, and for the 3rd time outright. I wasn’t at my best for most of the tournament, but that led at least to plenty of excitement! read more…
Lessons from the Limburg Open 2017 – Part III
Playing 2 or even 3 games a day makes a weekend tournament into a test of endurance. Being able to defeat weaker players without expending too much energy is a key skill of the seasoned road warrior. I didn’t manage to demonstrate this skill convincingly in either Limburg or Haarlem. My second rounds in particular read more…
Lessons from the Limburg Open 2017 – Part II
We carry on our examination of my games from the recent 2017 Limburg Open with brief episodes from 2 crucial games: my win against the Dutch IM Koen Leenhouts in the 5th round which took me to shared first, and the crazy finale to the tournament against Ivan Sokolov which secured me a share of 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
