Imagine sitting down with the black pieces to face the most violent attacking player since Alekhine, who needs the full point to gain the right to play for the World Championship! That’s what baritone Vasily Smyslov did when he faced Paul Keres in the deciding game of the Candidates’ Tournament, Zurich, 1953. Watch Smyslov thread [...]

  “I like pain.” –Steve McNair, Quarterback, Baltimore Ravens

  Dear Abby: You have often been asked where a single woman can meet a decent, eligible man. I have a suggestion: Join a chess club. Women are always welcome. Furthermore, they will find that men outnumber women 10–1. Not bad odds. Also, from 25% to 40% of the men will be unmarried. Men who [...]

  “My Jesu swet I go to mete His body is my soles delete. Always I rise from the glomby earth When Jesu sucketh me with his swet mouth.”   –attributed to St. Dorothea of Montau, ca. 1390 Dorethea was an ascetic, flagellant, ecstatic visionary, immured alive in the walls of the Marienwerder Cathedral, Danzig [...]

William “Stinkin’ Bill” Steinitz (1836–1900) was the self-proclaimed first World Chess Champion. He announced himself thus after a match with Anderssen in 1866, and nobody argued with him. He held the crown for twenty eight years, successfully defending the title against the likes of Blackburne, Zuckertort and Tchigorin. All accounts indicate that Stinkin’ Bill was [...]

William Steinitz…………1866 Emanuel Lasker………….1894 Jose Raul Capablanca…..1921 Alexander Alekhine……..1927 Max Euwe…………………1935 Alexander Alekhine…….1937-1946–died as champion. Mikhail Botvinnik……….1948–recognized as champion. Vasily Smyslov………….1957 Mikhail Botvinnik……….1958 Mikhail Tal……………….1960 Mikhail Botvinnik……….1961 Tigran Petrosian………..1963 Boris Spassky…………..1969 Robert Fischer………….1972-1975–retired as champion. Anatoly Karpov…………1975–recognized as champion. Garry Kasparov………..1985 Vladimir Kramnik………2000

What better than to have a gander at one of the final encounters of two chess immortals, Emmanuel Lasker and Jose Capablanca? This game, played in Moscow in 1936, was one of the last in a series heralding all the way back to 1919. Both players were well past their prime, but this rivalry always [...]

Everyman Press © 2006 This abominable series is almost worthless because there are hundreds of factual errors and the games are full of useless analysis. Ego-maniac Kasparov says: “I discovered this move which has been unknown for fifty years,” or forty, or thirty, etc. His “great” discovery is crap, leading to a “quicker” win – [...]

Vladimir Kramnik, Chess Champion of the World, accepted a challenge from Veselin Topalov, FIDE Champion, for a “12 game match”, beginning September 23. Kramnik is an honorable man but naive and gullible. He let the match be held under the auspices of FIDE, a corrupt organization ruled by a virtual dictator: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Compounding his [...]