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
Compact at the 4NCL
One of the nicest themes we discuss in “Chess for Life” comes up in the chapter on Sergei Tiviakov. In this chapter we discuss one of Sergei’s most significant contributions to chess theory: the 3…Qd6 Scandinavian (1.e4 d5 2.ed Qd5 3.Nc3 Qd6). While writing the book, I played the opening a few times to get read more…
Bygone books
While playing through Alekhine’s “Collection of Best Games”, my attention was caught by this position from Alekhine-Reti Vienna 1922. It’s a famous position of course, but I couldn’t escape from the feeling I’d seen this diagram in another old book: I had an image in my head of how it looked on the page read more…
Chess for Life in the BCM
Just through the door, the February 2016 edition of the new, glossy British Chess Magazine. Inside an article by Natasha and I about “Chess for Life”. To support our theory that rapid time controls are well-suited to experienced players, we each comment on a recent win from Rapidplay events! I discuss a win from the read more…
Chess for Life is Live!
Saturday 27th February was a memorable day! A knock at the door of my parents’ house and a few moments later, I had a copy of “Chess for Life” in my hands for the first time – such a proud moment! Natasha and I first discussed the idea for the book during the Summer 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
