This is a personal guide to emailing chess games when using ChessBase*. Like everything else, it's easy when you know how, but I've come across experienced players, long established in the chess world, even professional players, who are a little unsure about how best to go about it. I'll give you an example of someone who is a little unsure about it: me. OK, I'm joking but there is a point to this. It occurs to me that ChessBase probably has a built-in 'email game' function but I don't know, despite being an assiduous and regular user of their software for nigh on 30 years. Does it? I just che ..read more

I don't blog here very often but I thought it would be a good place to post stray games which I come across in my researches. Here's a game between the well-known Mary Rudge and a lesser known adversary, Mrs Ludovici. Annotations are by Miss Rudge... your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard I did a bit of biographical research on Mrs Ludovici. Her maiden name was Sarah Anne Rogers and she was born in Stafford (or thereabouts) in the third quarter of 1837. Her brother John was also a chess player, incidentally. Sarah married a German, Heinr ..read more

Here's a bit of advice for would-be bicycle thieves. Let's imagine you've been apprehended eyeing up some bikes by an observant member of the constabulary and you're in the nick being given the third degree. Speaking as your (admittedly unqualified) brief, I'm recommending you keep schtum for the time being as the optimal time for using your trump card will be when you're up before the beak. That's when you play your get-out-of-jail-free card. Or rather three cards. You tell the magistrate... I was waiting for my brother;  I can't ride a bike;  I'm a chess player. Sounds ridiculous ..read more

Here's a photo you might have seen before... ... of Fabiano Caruana playing Viktor Korchnoi in the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters in 2011. The age differential was an amazing 61 years (which is greater than that between, for example, Karpov and Alekhine). And, more amazing still - it was the older guy who won! I'm proud of the fact that I took this photo. Only this morning, renowned chess photographer David Llada said of it, "That photo from Gib is a piece of chess history. I wouldn’t have minded to have taken it!" That makes me prouder still - a bit like being a rank and file player and having ..read more

I have just heard the sad news of the death of David Welch, who contributed so much to British chess as an arbiter and organiser over so many years. David Welch at the Gibraltar Festival in 2015 (photo John Saunders) Dave was born in Brampton (Chesterfield), Derbyshire, on 30 October 1945. After attending Chesterfield Grammar School, where he captained the chess team, he took a degree at Cambridge University before taking up a teaching job at Liverpool in 1968. Also starting teaching the same day at the same school was Peter Purland, who like Dave was to become an equally distinguished serv ..read more

As we all know, chess has a strong element of sado-masochism about it. Have you ever noticed how a crowd gathers round a board when some gruesomely obvious winning line or checkmate is about to happen? Hands up anyone who claims not to have done this? You are either a saint or, more likely, a liar. I do it myself, though it makes me feel like one of those awful rubberneckers who peers across at road accidents on motorways or even one of those people who once attended public executions. Even more despicably, I have been known to take photos... ... but enough of the self-loathing, let's cut to ..read more

This is my first blog post from the 2018 World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, being played at The College, Southampton Row, London. Game 1: the challenger Fabiano Caruana faces the champion Magnus Carlsen The first thing to say is that I’m not intending to provide detailed coverage of the actual play. This is already being done excellently and professionally by the likes of Chess.com (now working in tandem with ChessBomb), Chess24.com, ChessBase.com, etc, and there would be no point in trying to compete with all these online chess outlets. Click on the ..read more

"Let's see if I've got this straight. If I lose, I die and go straight to hell. If I win, I get an extra 200 rating points and an IM norm. Is that right? OK... seems like a good deal... let's play ..read more

"Adjudication or adjournment? You're 'avin' a laugh! It's quickplay finish or increments these days, sunshine ..read more

A rambling tale of three soccer-playing chessers...A couple of posts back, I revived and adapted the old Fox and James 'IAGOCOT' trope but this time I'm casting an eye over more tangible links between chess and soccer. One of the first and most fundamental connections is that we might not even have the word 'soccer' were it not for a footballing chess player. It's an oft-told tale but I have garnished it with a few new details. Embed from Getty Images The man whom legend says coined the word 'soccer' was Charles Wreford-Brown (1866-1951) who was an all-round sportsman at Oxford University who ..read more