R.I.P Evgeny Gik

Evgeny Gik was a hugely popular Soviet and Russian chess author. He died yesterday, seemingly of a sudden stroke, aged 73.

I grew up on Gik's books. His writings covered much more than chess - he wrote about many popular number, word and board games with such passion and humour that it was impossible not to love them all.

In the more recent times, Gik's articles were the first thing I read after buying the Nauka i Zhizn (Science and Life) magazines. He'd always managed to find something new and fascinating about the great and ancient game.

Such a sad and abrupt loss.