Novices and Experts
Education author and blogger David Didau has a lot to say about the difference between novices and experts on his website. This article is a good place to start. So…
Lucky Lucena
I was looking through some of the games played in last weekend’s 4NCL congress when I came across this rook ending. It was played in Round 2 between Julian Cast…
Some Recent Books
Some of you will be aware that I write regular book reviews for British Chess News. Three of the books I’ve reviewed recently might be of interest to Chess Improvers…
Richmond Junior Club 1975-2006 Part 3
You may be aware that I co-founded Richmond Junior Chess Club with my good friend Mike Fox in 1975, and, after he moved to Birmingham a few years later, ran…
The Extra Pawn
You might recall that my comeback game resulted in a rook ending which was completely drawn in spite of my opponent’s extra pawn. I thought it might be useful to…
Tom and Jerry
Let me tell you about two of our relatively new club members, both in their 30s. Let’s call them Tom and Jerry. I’ve changed their names and some details for…
Chess for Heroes Publication
As it’s probably Christmas Day when you read this, just a short announcement. I’m now working on publication of my coaching materials in physical format on Amazon. I’m starting with…
Comeback Kid
Regular readers of my posts may recall that I’d decided to retire from competitive chess during lockdown. Well, I was reluctantly persuaded to make a comeback the other day. Let…
The Motor Car Gambit
While searching newspaper archives for something else the other day I came across a rather amusing game with rather amusing annotations, considering the white bishops to be motor cars. It…
Opening Diagonals
Here’s a tactical idea which comes up from time to time. Your opponent has a king in the centre. You move a unit to a square controlled by two enemy…
