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 4NCL – Part I
November signals the start of the 4NCL season and I was in action on Board 1 for Guildford on the 19th & 20th November. I emerged with 2 wins from tough and fraught fights. The Saturday game featured an extremely sharp rook and knight ending which I analysed at some length with my friendly young read more…
King, Rook and Pawn vs King and Rook – Part IV
A couple of months ago, I wrote a series of articles on King, Rook and Pawn vs King and Rook. In this article, I want to examine a couple of positions that show the practical application of the knowledge we learned. The practical value of building up a body of easily retrievable knowledge on K, read more…
Alekhine’s themes – From the vertical to the diagonal
When you’re near there’s such an air of Spring about it I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it There’s no love song finer but how strange The change from major to minor Every time we say goodbye Cole Porter, “Ev’ry time we say goodbye” Well that’s what I thought of read more…
Yates’ King’s Indian Defence
I would like to finish this celebration of Yates’ play by taking a look at his handling of the King’s Indian Defence. In the article on Yates and Alekhine, we have already seen the fantastic win that Yates scored against Alekhine with this opening. That game featured his own approach in the King’s Indian 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
