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
Tactical Rook Endings
For the section on Keith Arkell’s rook endings in my new book “Chess for Life” (co-authored with WIM Natasha Regan) I played through more than 300 of Keith’s rook endings. A heroic effort I hope you agree! The effort seems to have rubbed off on my play – I’ve had more rook endings than ever read more…
Alekhine’s Themes – at you right from the opening!
One of the things that made Alekhine very frightening to play against was his inventiveness in the openings. His particular forte was provoking quick crises in solid-looking 1.d4 openings. Alekhine was a master at forcing the opponent to solve concrete problems an at unexpectedly early moment in the game. Without the buffer of modern opening read more…
70th Anniversary of Alexander Alekhine’s death
A day late on my site, but still heartfelt. A post to mark the 70th anniversary of Alexander Alekhine’s death. During a visit to Paris a couple of summers ago, I made a trip to the beautiful Cimetière du Montparnasse to visit his grave. I took a chessboard with me on which Kasparov had once read more…
Thank you to our “Chess for Life” Role Models!
Since the book has appeared, we’ve been catching up with our role models to hand over signed copies and thank them for their participation. At the recent 4NCL we caught up with Jon Speelman, Keith Arkell and Ingrid Lauterbach. Thanks to the help of a passing English GM, we managed to get a photo 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
