English Chess Forum

I cannot help with finding a source with annotations, but I think there are points of interest, worth annotating. See suggested moves for Black on moves 25, 27 and 48. [Event "Cable m GBR-USA 11th"] [Site "Brooklyn/London"] [Date "1909.03.26"] [Round "1.8"] [White "Holmes, Harry (Dr)"] [Black "Stade...

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 07, 2026 6:10 pm

What is the best starting position for White?

Starting Position 80 (going from a1 to h1, it is B B N N R K R Q). White is +0.83. White should play 1.g4.

Chess 960 Yearbook 2025 by Arno Nickel (Edition Marco, Berlin) deals extensively with computer evaluations of all 960 opening positions. Using Stockfish 16, the author found that the evaluation of the normal starting position to be +0.21 to White. The evaluations for the advantage for White in all ...

Chess 960 Yearbook 2025 by Arno Nickel (Edition Marco, Berlin) deals extensively with computer evaluations of all 960 opening positions. Using Stockfish 16, the author found that the evaluation of the normal starting position to be +0.21 to White. The evaluations for the advantage for White in all 9...

Once upon a time, I had schoolfriend who liked to play Bird's Opening and if you replied with From's Gambit, he turned it into a King's Gambit. So I reckon that the main problem was that the scoresheet was missing the first move for both players. So, here's my version [Event "Birmingham Open"] [Site...

Rudolf Spielmann. The person quoted is Reuben Fine. Sadly Spielmann's final years could not be described as uneventful.

An excerpt from "The Last Game of the Alekhine-Euwe Match" by John B. Snethlage, Chess Review 1936, page 26: As the game drew to a close and rumors began circulating that Dr. Euwe had winning chances - that Master Flohr was highly optimistic - the crowd realized that a new chess champion would proba...

Vizayanagaram - London 1883 subsidiary tournament.

Mini quest is on to get one of his books, E-Bay etc has a couple but they want funny money. Woodthorpe's "Death in a Little Town" was published by the aptly named Resurrected Press in 2015. Blackwell's have (new) copies available: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Death-in-a-Little-Town-by-...

Wilmot was awarded an extra prize at Glasgow 1911 but for what? From the British Chess Magazine 1911 page 351: In the Major Open "each non-prize-winner received five shillings for each game he won". Wilmot won three games so his prize was 15 shillings. For those who never calculated in pounds, shil...

Leonard in the Guardian China’s Xue Haowen began the event without any Fide titles and ended it as a grandmaster, unbeaten on 7/9 and breaking Judit Polgar’s record as the youngest winner Someone needs to tell his federation to submit an application then: https://ratings.fide.com/title_applications...

To wrap up, here is the original Monticelli Trap game (with the two Euwe-Capablanca Match draws inserted: [Event "Budapest"] [Site "?"] [Date "1926.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Monticelli, Mario"] [Black "Prokes, Ladislav"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E16"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2024.12.25"] [SourceDa...

Well done on getting the details of the players and opening. Anyone want to name the player whose name is given to the trap? The question about the author of the quote is more difficult so I will give a hint - the quote has been translated from the original Spanish.

In which match between two world champions did one of the players fall into the same opening trap "once by mistake and the other for self-esteem." Bonus points if you can provide the name of the trap and the person who made the comment.

John Clarke wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 12, 2024 7:48 pm

Which renowned pianist and composer (and, for a time, a leading politician) was, while still a boy, an accomplished blindfold chess player, capable of conducting three games simultaneously?

I think this might be Paderewski.