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
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…
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…
"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
