Good afternoon Everyone! A real treat today, so stick with it - everything here is wonderful ( for which I take zero credit) I have had my head in a book again! This one- My long standing readers will know that I really like Winawer. http...
Afternoon everyone. Last time round we had the pleasure of being joined by my friend Hans Renette, which reminded me that there is a book in pre-publication which I am desperate to get my hands on. I have done small blogs on both of them, w...
Afternoon Everyone. it struck me this week that I haven't posted any 19th century chess, or any Lasker for a while. so with what is going on today i thought it would be a good day to have a quick look at Lasker in his first tournament as World C...
Games come into my head at strange times and for no obvious reason. This week I recalled one from the 1977 Candidates Match between Korchnoi and Spassky. (Perhaps it came to mind because of the fuss made of someone playing the French Defence in a ...
This is an article that I have been meaning to put together for quite a while now. Vidmar's take on the 'London Rules'. I suspect that the material will provoke some interesting views! For that reason I present it with no comments of my own - bett...
Afternoon everyone, and I hope you are all enjoying Easter. A humble little offering today - just some games that you won't find anywhere else, some annotations and some chat over a holiday beer or two. I really like game anthologies - I have ...
This was meant to be a quick and simple little blog - but, Simaginfan being what he is, I ended up with a lot of stuff in the folder as it all came out of my head! I have basically thrown it all onto the page in my shambolic way, so apologies to...
Get better at chess and gain rating points. How many blogs on this site promise you miracles in that regard??!! Take your game to the next level and become a master by clicking a mouse button. Ahh! If only it was that simple!! Recently a friend...
Afternoon everyone! I'm back with some more beautiful and baffling chess battles. A follow up to my last humble offering https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/does-anyone-know-whats-going-on-alexandr-zaitsev-two-insane-games-and-some-rare-pi...
Afternoon Everyone. Last time the subject of me having some Russian language books reminded me of one that I haven't looked at for a while. Alexandr Zaitsev. A player who was a late developer, and died too young in sad circumstances. Before...
Afternoon everyone, and welcome along to another of those 'my week in chess' type offerings of mine. So what have I been looking at this week? A while ago someone on the site asked if there were any books on Salo Flohr. I have two. A cheap and...
A strong title!? Probably. But it reflects my feelings. Sometimes things make me angry – that is part of being human. Some time ago I wrote this article https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/romanovsky-revisited-tragic-scenes-from-a-won...
Afternoon everyone. Back with more from The Encyclopedia Of Latvian Chess Players. A big bag of goodies to browse through and take your pick from. In the 1930s Latvia was one of the better teams in the Chess Olympiads - you can look it all up on...
Last time round I posted a picture of the back of Zagoriansky's head!! That reminded me of two rare and historically significant pictures I had been meaning to share - I have not seen them anywhere else. With apologies for the disorganised and s...
Afternoon Everyone. Over on the ecforums site there is a thread 'Chess History Trivia' where proper chess historians ask almost impossible to answer questions. This week I came across something which would fit well there! Can you name an untit...
Over on Twitter - yeah, I know it's the land of anonymous abuse, but there is some great chess material to be found there - I spotted this picture. Angelika Valkova Twitter I recognised the position at once! Game 5 of the second games colle...
A quick New Year's present - brief by my standards, my regular readers will be relieved to hear ( especially those with a mother of a hangover, staring at the left over turkey and wondering what to do with it - curry in progress here!!) In anoth...
My wife is one of those people who goes to the supermarket to buy a pack of pasta and comes home with a new coat! Well, I can't say anything - I am the same with chess books. A couple of days ago I went to this wonderful book by my friend Dr. Ti...
Afternoon Everyone. Quick gap between the cricket ( congratulations to young Rehan btw on breaking the legendary Brian Close's record. Remember the name - he is a real talent!) and the football to quickly throw some chess together. Recently co...
Afternoon Everyone! A couple of hours to fill between the cricket and the football here, so a special little offering today. Recently a conversation with the inimitable @kamalakanta turned to Chigorin. ( I have always spelled it Tc...
Afternoon everyone! Hope Thanksgiving was enjoyed by my friends in the USA as Much as England's dire effort against you guys in the World Cup! A recent fine post here https://www.chess.com/blog/kahns/a-century-of-chess-san-sebastian-1912?n...
Afternoon Everyone! Some enjoyable and long forgotten chess games to share with you today - another bit of self indulgence!! In my last blog, and a recent one by @kahns on Carlsbad 1911, the name of Richard Teichmann aroused some i...
Afternoon Everyone. Warning! This blog doesn't promise to add points to your rating just by clicking on the link, and you don't have to pay money subscribing to anything!! It's just me sharing the chess I have been looking at this week, and post...
Afternoon Everyone - Back with a mixed bag today. Before I forget - looking quickly for some background, a thought struck me. Over here in the U.K. we have a number of people doing excellent work researching the genealogy of chess players of the...
Been away for a few days in Paris. As usual I took a holiday book with me. This wonderful little work. One of my long chains of thought coming, so yet another of my over-long offerings that you should treat like a book - dip in and out of it ...
