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
Defeating your nemesis
One of the best games of Yates’ career was the victory with Black in the 1930 San Remo against Milan Vidmar. Yates had a fantastic result at San Remo 1930. No-one could keep pace with Alekhine of course, but 5th place in this company was something to be proud of! Vidmar was a read more…
Yates and Alekhine
F.D. Yates was a great admirer of Alekhine’s play as shown by his fulsome tribute in the Yorkshire Post of 29th November 1927 on the occasion of Alekhine’s victory over Capablanca: “After many encounters with Alekhine personally, I can say he has the pure love of the beauty of the combinations of the game, evolved read more…
Attacking with F.D. Yates – Part II
We’ll warm up for this second article on Yates’ attacks with a beautiful combination, though you might argue against the rest of the game meriting an entry in a Best Games Collection! Yates,F.D. – Colle,Edgar Hastings 1925/6 1.e4 Nf6 Yates had a poor score with White against Colle mainly because he struggled read more…
Attacking with F.D Yates – Part I
I would like to start this series of articles by examining attacks by Yates taken from his Best Games collection. Though none of them is perfect, they are a good illustration of Yates’ attacking flair. The first game was played against Isidor Gunsberg at the 1914 British Championship at Chester and featured an attack 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
