American Chess Masters from Morphy to Fischer by Arthur Bisguier and Andrew Soltis; Macmillan Publishing Company; 1974 Many years later Soltis said that he alone wrote all of the book. Despite agreeing to help write the book, Bisguier did nothing at all, for which he should be thanked, as this is absolutely worthless trash. There [...]

Grandmasters of Chess by Harold Schonberg; 1st ed. Lippincott 1973; revised WW Norton & Co. 1981. Grandmasters of Chess by Harold Schonberg is a rotten book that consists of yellow jounalism based upon the writer’s ignorance and incredible stupidity. Mr. Schonberg does not understand chess, chess masters, chess history, or anything else of what he [...]

by James Schroeder Once upon a time a man found a large bone, flat on two sides. He put a mark on one side and two marks on the other side and then found another man with whom he gambled. The man tossed the bone in the air and the other man called one, or [...]

  He was the fifth World Champion, and though he held the title for barely two years, his achievement of defeating Alexander Alekhine in 1935 is still regarded as one of the great long shot victories in all of sports. Machgielis “Max” Euwe (pronounced “ervor” as in “fervor”) was never a chess “professional.” Having obtained [...]

“I was 22 then and the youngest in the team. When, on the eve of the match (USSR vs. USA, Moscow, 1946–Ed.), the strategical battle plan was being decided upon, the first to speak was the elder, M. M. Botvinnik. “Looking steadily at me, he pronnounced in a clear and imposing tone: ‘I hope that [...]

The Schwarzschild Singularity, that numerical pit where zero and infinity are indistinguishable, implied by General Relativity–first rejected but later grudgingly accepted by Einstein–remains the enigmatic belly of the beasts known as Black Holes, arguably the most mystifying phenomena in the universe. If nature abhors numerical infinities, it evidently makes an exception for the unviewable inner [...]

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 resistance [...]

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 [...]

[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 [...]