Book/movie review © 2003 James Schroeder
The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabakov. 1930. Translated from Russian by Michael Scammell in collaboration with the author. Copyright 1964.
I have read the novel and the movie is an atrocious disgrace that has only superficial resemblance to the story.
In short: Luzhin is a Russian who suffers from [...]

Movie review © 2004 James Schroeder
“The Chess Player” From the novel by Henri Bupuy-Mazuel. Produced by La Societe des Films Historiaues. 1926. France.
This is a melodrama, starting in the town of Vilnius in Polish Lithuania in 1776, which is occupied by Russian soldiers of Catherine the Great.
The leader of the Polish [...]

 
“When you are hungry, do you put up pictures of bread?”
 –Wolfgang Luth, WWII U-boat commander, on the subject of forbidding the display of “pin-up girls” on his boats.

At the arena, nothing thrills like the stunning knock-out punch. So in chess, to Hastings 1895 looks the rank and file chess player for good old-fashioned slugfests par excellence. In the match-up below, William “Stinkin’ Bill” Steinitz lands the big shot on Kurt von Bardeleben, then batters him along the ropes, driving him into his [...]

 
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
 
–Martin Luther King Jr.
 

[Click HERE for floating game board.]
Copyright © 2006 James Schroeder
It was a beautiful spring morning about to turn into a sunny afternoon, for which Southern California was famous. Twenty years later Harry would remember it nostalgically as “the good old days”.
It was a Saturday, a day off from work. Having very little money [...]

This game, published in “Developments in the King’s Gambit 1980–88″ (Quadrant Marketing Ltd. 1988) features perhaps the most ferocious opening line in chess. The Muzio is Muzio enough, but the sac on move eight in this line takes chess opening aggression to new heights. Look now upon such contest as has a permanent place in [...]

 
Babies haven’t any hair;
   Old men’s heads are just as bare;–
Between the cradle and the grave
   Lies a haircut and a shave.
 
–Samuel Hoffenstein

>Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cheese, sugar and lemon juice until the mixture is light and fluffy.
>Add the eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat until very smooth after the last addition.
>Stir in the cream and pour mixture into the prepared [...]

Cecil Purdy…………………….Australia, 1950–53
Viacheslav Ragozin………….USSR, 1956–59
Alberic O’Kelly de Galway……Belgium, 1959–62
Vladimir Zagorovsky………….USSR, 1962–65
Hans Berliner………………….USA, 1965–68
Horst Rittner…………………..East Germany, 1968–71
Jakov Estrin……………………USSR, 1972–76
Jorn Sloth………………………Denmark, 1975–80
Tonu Oim……………………….USSR, 1977–83
Victor Palciauskas……………..USA, 1978–84
Fritz Baumbach………………..East Germany, 1981–87
Grigory Snakoev………………USSR, 1984–90
Mikhail Umansky………………Russia, 1989–98
Tonu Oim………………………..Estonia, 1994–99
Gert Timmerman………………Netherlands, 1996–2002
Tunc Hamarat…………………..Austria, 1999–2004
Ivar Bern………………………..Norway, 2002–
Joop Van Oosterom……………Netherlands, 2003–05
Christophe Leotard…………….France, 2004–