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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (46)
22.08.2010 – Morphy versus the Duke and Count (Paris, 1858) was described by Frank Marshall
as ‘the most famous game of all time’. Even so, as the Editor of
Chess Notes demonstrates,
modern masters’ views differ concerning its value, and there is much about
the circumstances of the game which is still enveloped in mystery. Another intriguing historical investigation...
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (45)
31.07.2010 – Chess problems are sometimes regarded as a daunting ghetto, of no real interest,
let alone value, to active players. The Editor of Chess
Notes has invited one of the world’s leading problem experts to select
some compositions to illustrate the delights which many players deny themselves.
A total of 12 positions are given, and even anti-problem die-hards may be enticed and charmed.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (44)
21.07.2010 – No famous figure, whether dictator,
pope, author, scientist, musician or film star, is safe from having a spurious game of chess attributed
to him, and fanciful claims have also been made about world champions. In his discussion of the subject of hoaxes the Editor of Chess
Notes includes a bizarre story from the nineteenth century about what was discovered in the brain of a blindfold expert.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (43)
10.07.2010 – The Editor of Chess
Notes discusses the unusual brilliancy by Capablanca against Kevitz at New
York, 1931, on the basis of the loser’s notes in a letter written many
years later. The game has been described as ‘a delightful gem with a piquant
finish’ and with ‘a problem-like move’, but is the exact game-score certain? And, above all, has the Cuban’s
play been over-praised?
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (42)
30.06.2010 – Shockingly, there are chess writers and publishers who copy the work of others. As the Editor of Chess Notes shows, the copying may include large-scale reproduction of positions, plagiarism of text and, even, removing the real author’s name and putting someone else’s. Readers may have to rub their eyes, but in our beloved chess world all this has really happened.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (41)
14.06.2010 – In reply to a reader in Switzerland who asks about recordings of chess masters’ voices from the pre-Botvinnik era, the Editor of Chess Notes explores the subject, quoting a number of reports about, among others, the world champions Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe and Lasker. And when did the first radio broadcast about chess take place? Any advance on 1923?
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (40)
01.06.2010 – It is over five years since Kasparov’s dramatic announcement that he
was giving up serious chess play. Such declarations, or intentions, are by no
means rare, and the Editor of Chess
Notes recalls a number of decisions, often surprising and mostly fleeting,
by greats of the past: Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Harrwitz, Lasker,
Marshall, Pillsbury and Steinitz. Retirement.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (39)
25.04.2010 – Chess is a multi-million-dollar game, or at least it can be. Throughout the
ages, many of the greatest figures, chess masters whose games have offered untold
pleasure to generations of enthusiasts all over the world, have been devastated
by poverty. The Editor of Chess
Notes recalls some chilling examples, even including cases involving world chess champions.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (38)
06.04.2010 – Commentators have remarked that certain masters have favourite moves, an example
being Gideon Ståhlberg’s liking for the pawn advance ...c4 in the
Queen’s Gambit Declined and the French Defence. The Editor of Chess
Notes gives a number of examples of such predilections and invites readers
to delve further into the subject on the basis of research with databases.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (37)
08.03.2010 – At the New York, 1889 tournament a master lost a game by forfeit after only
eight moves because he was, in the words of a newspaper report, ‘laboring
under excitement’. The Editor of Chess
Notes looks at three great players with reputations for heavy dependency
on alcohol, examining how they have been treated by
contemporaries and subsequent writers.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (36)
01.02.2010 – The Editor of Chess
Notes discusses a quintet of positions submitted by readers. The common
theme is that in each case it has so far proved impossible to find the full
game-score. Can further details about the games be discovered? Even if not,
readers will certainly enjoy some entertaining and instructive play from a cast
which includes Ehlvest, Nimzowitsch, Pachman, Simagin and Soultanbéieff.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (35)
23.01.2010 – Just occasionally, the worlds of chess and murder have intersected: players
of our game have become either killers or victims. In addition to links to his
detailed coverage of the Wallace Murder Case and the fatal shooting of a Hastings
stalwart, the Editor of Chess
Notes provides citations regarding such figures as the Lipstick Killer,
Moors Murderer and St Albans Poisoner.
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