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
Chess variants! Thousands of ’em!
As followers of my YouTube channel will know, I have been experimenting with a number of chess variants studied by Google DeepMind (together with ex-World Champion Vladimir Kramnik) in their interesting paper “Assessing Game Balance with AlphaZero: Exploring Alternative Rule Sets in Chess”. This paper can be viewed at https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.04374 I’ve put together a playlist read more…
GM David Navara – Leela Zero knight odds match on lichess!
Lichess was the host for a fascinating match on Saturday 30th March between GM David Navara and Leela Zero at knight odds chess. I had the privilege of commentating on the match and the complete recording is available here on my Silicon Road YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/live/b04MPlCSL24 All the games of the match are available here on the Lichess Events page: https://lichess.org/broadcast/leela-vs-gm-david-navara-knight-odds-match/match/U8CvXKoW#boards The Leela team blog article on the match is here: https://lczero.org/blog/2024/03/leela-vs-gm-david-navara/
The Mrbdzz Novelty Grinder!
Leela’s wonderful new WDL Contempt feature – discussed in earlier posts and also in a series of videos on my Silicon Road YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxhvNMc95Uo9N6W48TUAyIwkjK0w1wHKj&si=IK9OpgsfWB-wktZ1) – continues to inspire new avenues of chess investigation. One event that created a stir was the fascinating David Navara – Leela match at knight odds on which I commentated here: https://www.youtube.com/live/b04MPlCSL24?si=ybsivb7HM3HnosEa I’ll most likely dedicate some blog space to that match in the future, but this blog post focuses on a lovely little programming project by grizzled veteran TCEC chatter mrbdzz who many of you will know from my streams as “Leela’s Greatest Fan”!
The Modern with …c6 and …d5
When I started playing again after a break of some 8-9 years, my opening choices were driven by a fervent desire to do something different to what I had done before, and by some strange feelings of nostalgia.
"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
